Badminton Asian Championships: Sindhu, Srikanth and Treesa-Gayatri advance to Round of 16

PV Sindhu was made to work hard for her 21-15, 22-20 victory over Wen Chi Hsu in Round 1 of the Badminton Asia Championships in Dubai on Wednesday. Trailing 11-14 in the opener, Sindhu would take off on a 9-point spree and pocket the first. Leading 14-9 in the second, she would stave off a 5-point spree from Wen in the second, to eventually take the match in 46 minutes.
It wasn’t easy because Wen has a fair amount of deception in her game, and is a compulsive retriever. But a long rally at 14-all appeared to have exhausted her to an extent that she couldn’t wrest control thereafter though she snatched a 19-18 lead threatening to force a decider. Sindhu would stay dogged in defence when called upon to, and use her power game to finish off – something her opponent couldn’t.
Sindhu plays the higher-ranked Chinese Han Yue in Round 2 in what is potentially another tricky encounter.
Also winning on the day was Kidambi Srikanth, who downed Adnan Ebrahim 21-13, 21-8 in 25 minutes, and HS Prannoy who was clinical against Phone Naing 21-14, 21-9.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela rallied from a set down against Lanny Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto of Indonesia, winning 17-21, 21-17, 21-18.
The Indian duo saw a few errors that set them back in the opener. But they would fight back with compact defence, and take the early 5-0 lead in the second. The Indonesians would come back to 16-14, but a Gayatri interception at the net would help them level the sets 21-17.
Treesa was a livewire in attack, but it was her defence that withstood every Indonesian comeback. In the second they went from trailing the Indians 11-9 to leading them 14-15. The Indians had to summon some desperate defence in the end, but first Gayatri at 19-18 and then Treesa at 20-18 would step up to thrash out a win in just over an hour.

Day 2 https://t.co/94KSlPJbwH Dubai 2023 Badminton Asia Championship Powered Floki: Results Update
Day 2 (Round 32): Men’s SinglesKIDAMBI Srikanth 🇮🇳 vs Adnan EBRAHIM 🇧🇭 : 21-13 21-8#Badminton #BadmintonAsia #BACDubai2023 pic.twitter.com/xzyTOdmPth
— Badminton Asia (@Badminton_Asia) April 26, 2023
In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty faced no trouble dispatching Tan Kian Meng and Tan Wee Kiong of Malaysia 21-14, 21-17.
Slow start costly for Sen
Lakshya Sen started slow against the quick and power-smashing Loh Kean Yew, and couldn’t recover the lead despite a fighting second set thereafter, losing 21-7, 23-21. His court movement remained just a touch sluggish in defence – something that wasn’t going to go unpunished the fast Loh, ranked No 7 in the world.
Starting 0-4 and struggling to find his length from the drifty side, Sen, now ranked World No 24, allowed a yawning 4-17 gap to open. Rallies hardly went over 5-6 exchanges, and Sen remained little static in letting go of the opener 21-7, perhaps hoping for change of ends to turn his fortunes.
He did lead through large parts of the second, playing decisive strokes at the net and stringing Loh to a yo-yo on the backcourt. However, scores stayed neck to neck, as Loh wasn’t about to flatly accept a decider.
In the 6 matches they have played before, none have been three setters, though Sen came pretty close to pushing one. Sen led till 11-9, but Loh stayed toe to toe till 18-all, troubling the Indian with his persent defence. Sen would accelerate both foot and hand speed to take the 20-19 lead. In a long rally, longest of the match, the Indian packed off the Singaporean to opposite flanks, and ended with a straightsmash. But next point, Sen floated the shuttle long for 20-20.
A jump smash at 21-20 gave him another chance, but Sen couldn’t hold on, and Loh was now prancing about with his smashes and follow-ups to lead 22-21. Sen dumped a return into the net to finally go down 23-21.
Losing the match and showing some fight was also Malvika Bansod who went down 25-23, 21-19 to world champion Akane Yamaguchi. Matching the Japanese shuttler’s pace in rallies, Malvika went toe to toe on strokes and only fell short at the finish. “I had a great experience playing against the most tenacious wonderful player, the world no 1 defending champion Akane Yamaguchi in the most prestigious badminton Asia championship. She has had a great year winning many titles. While representing India and matching up to her each point in the first and the second game was good,” she said.

“At 23-all I had my chances but her years of experience worked in her favour.
But I felt that I was almost there and just a point away from a big upset. I am looking forward to stepping up my hard work and my performance.”
Mixed doubles pairing of Rohan Kapoor – Sikki Reddy defeated Chan Peng Soon – Cheah Yee See of Malaysia 21-12, 21-16, coming out of qualification.