Lakshya Sindhu Satwik-Chirag pair win opening round matches in China Masters

     Shenzhen (China), Nov 20 (PTI) PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen progressed to the women's and men's singles second round respectively after comfortable victories while the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty notched a hard-fought win in their first match after the Paris Olympics at the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament here on Wednesday.
     In-form Malvika Bansod, ranked 36th in the world, also registered an upset, defeating Denmark's world No. 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt 20-22, 23-21, 21-16 to advance to the second round.
     World No. 19 Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, dispatched the higher-ranked Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-17, 21-19 in 50 minutes, notching up her 20th win in 21 meetings with the Thai shuttler.
     The 29-year-old from Hyderabad will next face Singapore's Yeo Jia Min, while Malvika will meet eighth-seeded Supanida Katethong.
     Returning to action after a break following the Paris Olympics, defending champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 12-21, 21-19, 21-18 in a gruelling opening-round match that lasted one hour and six minutes.
     The Asian Games gold medallist Indian duo will meet the Danish pair of Rasmus Kjaer and Frederik Soggard in the pre-quarterfinals.
     The Indian pair didn't play after a medal-less Olympic campaign as Satwik went through a prolonged recovery from an injury.
     In the women's doubles, the Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also sailed into the second round with a 21-15, 21-14 win over Chinese Taipei's Hu Ling Fang and Jheng Yu Chieh to almost seal their spot for the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals.
     The world number 18 Indian pair, which is currently at eighth spot in the BWF World Tour rankings, will face second seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China next.
     "It will be great if we qualify, we are just trying to give our best and enjoy every game, really looking forward to the world tour final," Gayatri said after the match.
     The top eight pairs will make it to the prestigious event scheduled in Hangzhou, China from December 11 to 15.
     Lakshya, meanwhile, avenged his Olympic bronze-medal loss with a 21-14, 13-21, 21-13 win over seventh seed Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in 57 minutes. Lakshya will next face either Denmark's Rasmus Gemke or Japan's Kenta Nishimoto.
     The victory was a balm for Lakshya, who had lost to Lee in the Paris Olympics bronze-medal match from an advantageous position.
     In their first meeting since that defeat, Lakshya played with vengeance, surging to an 11-4 lead in the opening game before sealing it.
     Lee bounced back in the second game, racing to a 7-1 lead before extending it to 17-8 to level the contest.
     In the decider, Lakshya took a 5-1 lead, but Lee fought back to level at 5-5. However, Lakshya held firm, taking an 11-8 lead at the break with a precise smash. He then moved to 14-10 with two diagonal shots before reaching 18-11 with a cross-court smash.
     The Indian held his nerves and wrapped up the match after Lee hit wide.

     Sindhu vs Busanan
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     Both shuttlers started off the match on an even keel with Busanan taking a 14-10 lead thanks to two unforced errors by the Indian.
     However, Sindhu went on a roll, winning the next nine points to take a 19-14 lead before closing the first game in her favour.
     But the loss in the first game didn't deter Busanan as she started the second game strongly. Although Sindhu trailed for most part of the second game, she continued to chip away at the points deficit with her aggressive play to take the lead for the first time in the game at 18-17.
     The star Indian shuttler then sealed the match.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)