Canada Open 2023: Sindhu, Lakshya advance to second round; Sai Praneeth bows out

 Indian badminton players P.V. Sindhu and Lakshya Sen advanced to the second round of the Canada Open 2023 BWF Super 500 event after winning their respective matches, here.

Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu registered a comfortable 21-16, 21-9 win over world No.62 Talia Ng of Canada in the opening round on Wednesday night.

Sindhu and Talia went toe-to-toe in the early stages. With the scores tied at 13-all, the Indian ace unleashed a series of smashes to gain the upper hand and pocketed the opening game.

The 28-year-old Sindhu carried the momentum into the second game as she led Talia Ng 4-0 early on. The Canadian offered a brief resistance to reduce the gap to 6-5. However, the local shuttler failed to match the Indian's intensity as Sindhu bagged seven consecutive points and wrapped up the match with ease.

Sindhu, the world No.15 in the latest women's singles rankings, will next play Japan’s world No. 27 Natsuki Nidaira in the round of 16.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games 2022 champion Lakshya stunned world No.4 Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand 21-18, 21-15 in a hard-fought first-round men’s singles match.

Lakshya and second seed Vitidsarn were closely matched in the first game. Both shuttlers were involved in an intense battle but Indian held his nerve to take the lead. The second game was also a closely-fought affair. However, Lakshya raised his game in the final exchanges and sealed the encounter in 38 minutes.

In the other men's singles matches, India's B Sai Praneeth crashed out after losing 12-21, 17-21 to Brazil's Ygor Coelho, who will be Lakshya's opponent in the second round.

Another Indian badminton player Gadde Ruthvika Shivani lost 12-21, 3-21 to Thailand's Supanida Katethong in the first round of the women's singles.

Earlier, Commonwealth Games 2014 gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap had bowed out in the men's singles qualifying round on Tuesday.