After a great start at the ongoing BWF World Championship by Indian shuttlers, it was a mixed third day for the country. While the men’s doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and M R Arjun moved to the pre-quarterfinals, the women’s doubles of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy had a bad outing as they crashed out of the Championship. The Women’s duo lost 15-21, 10-21 to top-seeded Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China in just under 45 minutes.
Unseeded Arjun and Kapila defeated the eighth-seeded Kim Astrup and Andres Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark by 21-17, 21-16 in their second-round match. The duo will now face Hee Yong Kai Terry and Loh Kean Hean of Singapore in their next match.
Lakshya Sen, the 2022 Commonwealth Gold medallist won his second-round match to advance into the next. He defeated Spanish L Penalver by 21-17, 21-10 in the round of 32 to land in the Round of 16. Sen will meet the winner of Prannoy vs Kento Momota in his next match. The game will be held on 24th at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
The other women’s doubles pair of Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh also went out of their round of 32 matches losing 15-21, 7-21 against Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan of South Korea. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also lost to Thinaah Muralitharan and Pearly Tan by 21-8, 21-17 in just 35 minutes to bring India another defeat in the BWF World Championship.
Srikanth Kidambi went head to head against top-seeded Jun Peng Zhao of China in his Round of 32 match. The ace shuttler was expected to come good against the top-seeded player. However, it was a complete whitewash for Srikanth as he lost in straight sets by 9-21, 17-21 in what was a disappointing performance from the Indian badminton player.
The BWF World Championship is currently being held in Tokyo, Japan. This is the 27th edition of the event featuring a total of 350 competitors from 45 nations. India have sent 26 shuttlers to the mega event with the most athletes coming from Japan (29) and Malaysia (27).
