Singapore Open: Sindhu, Prannoy advance; Lakshya loses to Axelsen

Singapore: Former champion P V Sindhu progressed to the women's singles second round, but Lakshya Sen went down fighting to world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the Singapore Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

Keralite H S Prannoy entered the pre-quarterfinals with a 21-9, 18-21, 21-9 win over Belgium's Julien Carraggi. He will meet Japan's Kenta Nishimoto for a place in the last eight.

Sindhu, who last won a BWF title in Singapore two years back, entered the tournament after a runner-up finish at the Thailand Open.

Up against world No. 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark, the Indian registered a 21-12, 22-20 win in a 44-minute opening round to set up a mouth-watering clash with Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain.

World No. 3 Marin has an overwhelming 11-5 record against Sindhu. The last time the two clashed, it turned out to be an ill-tempered match at Denmark Open which saw both players receiving yellow cards for verbal exchanges.

World No. 14 Lakshya, who will be making his Olympic debut at the Paris Games, fought hard, but lost steam after the change of ends in the decider to go down 13-21, 21-16, 13-21 in 62 minutes to Axelsen, who won his first title of the season at the Thailand Open on Sunday.

Kidambi Srikanth's opening-round match ended in agony as he retired after lagging 14-21, 3-11 against Japan's fifth seed Kodai Naraoka.

In other results, B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy lost 18-21, 19-21 to Malaysia's Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie in mixed doubles, while Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan lost 8-21, 8-21 against Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch in another match.

World No. 1 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Denmark's world No. 34 Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard 20-221, 181-21 in the opening round of men's doubles competition on Tuesday.