Sydney [Australia], November 19 : Indian shuttlers had a good outing in the opening round at the Australian Open 2025 badminton tournament in Sydney, with Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth advancing to the men's singles second round of the BWF Super 500 event on Wednesday.
Paris Olympics 2024 semi-finalist Lakshya defeated Chinese Taipei's Su Li-yang by a 21-17, 21-13 scoreline in a one-sided 43-minute game to advance to the next round.
Prannoy, playing his second tournament on the BWF World Tour after overcoming injury, beat Indonesia's Yohanes Saut Marcellyno 6-21, 21-12, 21-17.
Former World No. 1 Srikanth booked his place in the round of 16 after defeating Chinese Taipei's Lee Chia-hao 21-19, 19-21, 21-15 in a thrilling battle that went over an hour.
Apart from these three, Other Indian shuttlers, Ayush Shetty and Tharun Mannepalli, also won their respective men's singles matches to march into the pre-quarterfinals of the ongoing tournament.
Tharun overcame Denmark's Magnus Johannesen 21-13, 17-21, 21-19 in a closely fought game.
Ayush, on the other hand, thrashed Canada's Sam Yuan 21-11, 21-15 scoreline. The game lasted just 33 minutes. Shetty will go up against Japanese ace Koadi Naraoka in the next round.
India's only defeat in men's singles came when Kiran George lost to Kenta Nishimoto, of Japan. The final scoreline was 11-21, 24-22, 21-17.
Mohit and Lakshita Jaglan suffered a 21-21, 21-16 defeat to Canadian duo Nyl Yakura and Crystal Lai in the mixed event.
This leaves Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty the only Indian doubles pair in the Australian Open this year.
SatChi, who won their men's doubles opener on Tuesday, will face Chinese Taipei's Su Ching heng and Wu Guan-Xun in pre-quarterfinals.
India's women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand bowed out of the event on Tuesday. The Indian pair lost a one-sided match against Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspita Sari of Indonesia.
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