Indonesia Masters: Lakshya Sen, Saina Nehwal Progress To Second Round, HS Prannoy Out
NDTV
India's HS Prannoy faltered in the opening round, but compatriots Lakshya Sen and Saina Nehwal made an impressive start at the Indonesia Masters Super 500 tournament, advancing to the second round of singles events with contrasting wins in Jakarta on Wednesday.
India's HS Prannoy faltered in the opening round, but compatriots Lakshya Sen and Saina Nehwal made an impressive start at the Indonesia Masters Super 500 tournament, advancing to the second round of singles events with contrasting wins in Jakarta on Wednesday. World No. 12 Sen, who had a subdued start to the new season with early exits from Malaysia and India in the last two weeks, dished out a superlative performance to outwit Japan's new sensation, Kodai Naraoka, ranked 7th, 21-12 21-11 in his opening match.
London Games bronze medallist Saina, who had reached the second round at India Open, eked out a 21-15 17-21 21-15 win over Chinese Taipei's Pai Yu Po to make it to the pre-quarterfinals.
Seventh seed Sen, the reigning Commonwealth Games gold medallist, will face Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong next, while former world number one Saina takes on Chinese eighth seed Han Yue.
World No. 9 Prannoy suffered a second successive first-round exit, losing 19-21 10-21 to Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama. He had reached the semifinals of Malaysia Super 1000 but lost in the opening round of India Open last week.
Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth continued to flatter to deceive as he blew a 18-15 lead and two game points in the second game to lose 10-21 22-24 in 39 minutes.
