Sen beat Prannoy, Gayatri-Treesa too win in India Open

New Delhi: Defending champion Lakshya Sen registered a straight-game win over compatriot HS Prannoy to make a winning start to his title defence at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Tuesday. World No. 12 Sen, seeded seventh, was by far the better player on display as he settled the score against world No. 9 Prannoy after his opening-round reversal at the Malaysia Open with a 21-14, 21-15 win at the KD Jadhav Indoor hall in IG stadium here. Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand notched up a 22-20, 17-21, 21-18 win over France’s world No. 29 Margot Lambert and Anne Tran in their opener. Among other Indians, N Sikki Reddy and her new women’s doubles partner Shruti Mishra went down fighting 17-21, 19-21 to Germany’s Linda Efler and Isabel Lohau.
Earlier, Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke knocked out two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan 21-15, 21-11, former top-10 player Shi Yuqi of China staved off a challenge from Indonesia’s Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 20-22, 21-16, 21-15 and Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei beat Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen 21-18, 21-17.
Fifth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei also prevailed 22-20, 14-21, 21-11 over Lee Cheuk Yiu, while Zhao Jun Peng beat Weng Hong Yang 21-19, 21-12 in another match. In women’s singles, three-time former winner Ratchanok Intanon recovered from a back injury to get the better off Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei 21-13, 21-11 and Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin beat 2017 world champion Nozomi Okuhara 21-13, 21-18.