Reader TTS

Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath kept India’s hopes afloat at the Indonesia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament, advancing to the second round of the mixed doubles on Wednesday.

However, it was a disappointing day otherwise for the Indian contingent, with all other pairs bowing out after first-round defeats. Sathish and Variyath rallied to beat Chinese Taipei’s Ye

Hong-Wei and Nicole Gonzales Chan 15-21, 21-16, 21-17 in a tough opening-round contest that lasted 45 minutes. Advertisement However, it was a disappointing outing for the rest of the Indian

mixed doubles pairs, who bowed out in the opening round. Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde were outplayed by Japan’s Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara in straight games, going down

14-21, 9-21. Advertisement Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh also failed to make a mark, losing 15-21, 9-21 to Denmark’s Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch. Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha

Crasto put up a fight but couldn’t get past second seeds Tang Jie Chen and Ee Wei Toh of Malaysia, eventually falling 11-21, 21-16, 14-21. Earlier on the opening day, Satwiksairaj

Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu moved into the second round, while Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy endured first-round exits. Satwik-Chirag rallied after losing

the first game to beat Leo Rolly Carnando and Bagas Maulana 18-21, 21-18, 21-14 in the men’s doubles first round. Earlier, Sindhu defeated Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 22-20, 21-23, 21-15 to sail

into the second round. Sindhu is the only Indian left in women’s singles after Malvika Bansod retired after winning the first game against local girl Putri Kusama Wardani (16-21, 15-16),

Anupama Upadhyaya lost to Kim Ga Eun of Korea 15-21, 9-21 and Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj went down to eighth seed Supaida Katethong of Thailand 21-14, 15-21, 12-21. In men’s singles,

Lakshya Sen suffered a fifth first-round exit of the season after going down 11-21, 22-20, 15-21 to China’s Shi Yu Qi. His compatriot HS Prannoy also crashed out after enduring a 17-21,

18-21 loss against Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan. Advertisement