Catalonia: Defending champion PV Sindhu breezed past Slovakia’s Martina Repiska 21-7, 21-9 to make a resounding start in the BWF World Championships here on Tuesday.Lakshya Sen prevailed over 15th-seeded Japanese Kenta Nishimoto 22-20, 15-21, 21-18 to progress to the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals along with Kidambi Srikanth, who rallied to defeat Li Shi Feng of China 15-21, 21-18, 21-17. The 12th-seeded Indian’s match lasted one hour and 22 minutes.
In the men’s doubles category, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat the Chinese Taipei combination of Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 27-25, 21-17 to seal a spot in the Round-of-16.
World No.7 Sindhu took just 24 minutes to beat the unseeded opponent at Court No.3 of Palacio de Los Deportes Carolina Marín Stadium here. Seeded sixth in the tournament which she won in 2019 – when it was last held – two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu began on a rousing note and raced to a 4-1 lead. Repiska tried to make a comeback with two points, but the fancied Indian did not let her move ahead, holding an 11-4 advantage at the break.
Sindhu continued her dominance and kept accumulating points to widen the lead, eventually pocketing the first game in only 10 minutes. The script remained the same in the second game as well, with Sindhu maintaining her firm grip over the proceedings to race to a 6-0 lead in a matter of just two minutes.
At the midpoint, Sindhu was holding an 11-1 cushion and completed the formality with a dominant performance. Lakshya was made to toil hard for his victory by Nishimoto as the former took one hour and 22 minutes to emerge the winner.
However, the mixed doubles pairing of Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh suffered an 8-21, 18-21 defeat to Malaysians Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing.