BWF World Championship 2022: Day 1- Lakshya Sen, Saina Nehwal cruise to the second round in Tokyo

Lakshya Sen, the Commonwealth Games Gold medallist, has continued his impressive form in the ongoing BWF World Championships. In the first round, the Indian badminton star defeated Danish Hans- Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in straight sets to advance into the second round. Elsewhere, Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy also won their respective first-round matches and have advanced into the second.

Not just that but India also came up with wins in Women’s and mixed doubles competitions on the opening day of the event. B Sai Praneeth however lost the opening match to world number four Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Sen, who ended the Commonwealth Games 2022 on a high with a gold win, won the match by 21-12, 21-11 over Vittinghus. The 20-year-old will face Luis Enrique Penalver of Spain in his round two matches.

Indian star women shuttler, Saina Nehwal also cruised to victory defeating Ngan Yi by 21-19, 21-9. She had won the Bronze in 2015 Championships.

Praneeth however could not emulate the success of Sen as he lost 15-21, 21-15, 15-21 to Chen in just over an hour. Praneeth had a poor Olympics in Tokyo as he struggled to bring out good performances and bowed out without winning anything of significance. Notably, he had participated in the Tokyo Olympics without a proper coach or physio.

The 12th-seeded Srikanth who also won bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games had to fight for his first win with a score of 22-20, 21-19 over Nhat Nguyen of Ireland. Prannoy on the other hand had somewhat of an easy win of 21-12, 21-11 over Austria’s Luka Wraber.

Srikanth will next face Zhao Jun Peng of China whereas Prannoy will go against Kento Momota from Japan.

Ashwini Ponappa, former Commonwealth Games Bronze medalist and N Sikki Reddy progressed to the second round with a comfortable win over Aminath Baneeha Abdul Razzaq and Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq of Maldives. The score was 21-7, 21-9.

The BWF World Championships are being held in Tokyo, Japan from 22nd August to 28th August. All the matches take place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.