US Open: Sindhu, Lakshya march into second round

Two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu and her Indian compatriot, Lakshya Sen made a winning start in their US Open campaign with comfortable wins in their respective opening matches. Sindhu saw off local player Disha Gupta by 21-15, 21-10 in the first round of women’s singles while Lakshya dispatched Finland’s Kalle Koljonen 21-8, 21-16 in men’s singles on Wednesday. Heading into the first mid-game break of the match, Sindhu was trailing by two points against the American. The Indian ace, however, found her touch after the restart to win 12 of the next 16 points and went 1-0 up in the match. The second game saw Sindhu taking control of the proceedings right from the start as the match wrapped up in 27 minutes. Sindhu will face world No. 30 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei in her second-round clash on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Lakshya, who won the Canada Open title last week, dominated world No.55 Koljonen to win his match in just under half an hour. The 21-year-old will go up against the Czech Republic’s Jan Louda in the next round. Junior World Championships silver medallist Sankar Muthusamy, who made the main draw of men’s singles through the qualifiers, also reached the round of 16 after shocking eighth-seed Nhat Nguyen of Ireland 21-11, 21-16. Muthusamy will next play Israel’s Misha Zilberman in the Super 300 tournament. B Sai Praneeth’s campaign, however, ended after going down 21-16, 14-21, 19-21 to Che reigning All-England champion Li Shi Feng of China. India’s Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also crashed out after losing 14-21, 11-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Hsiang Ti in the first round of women’s singles.