Defending champion PV Sindhu beat Slovakian Martina Repiska 21-7 21-9 to get off to a resounding start in the BWF World Championship here on Tuesday. Lakshya Sen’s rapid rise topped 15th seed Kenta Nishimoto 22-20 15-21 21-18 to advance to the pre-quarterfinals, while Kidambi Srikanth rallied behind China’s Li Shi Feng 15-21 21-18 21-17. The 12th seed of India’s match lasted an hour and nine minutes.
In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei 27-25 21-17 in 43 minutes.
World number seven Sindhu took just 24 minutes to beat the unranked on opponent’s number 3 field at Palacio de los Deportes Carolina Mar n Stadium here.
Ranked sixth in the tournament she won in 2019 – in its last edition – the two-time Olympic medalist started on a catchy note and took a 4-1 lead with her beautiful play.
Repiska tried to come back with two runs, but the Fantasy Indian didn’t let her go ahead, leading 11-4 at the halfway point.
She continued her dominance and continued to rack up points to widen the lead, eventually pocketing the opener in just 10 minutes.
The storyline also remained the same in Game 2, with Sindhu retaining his firm grip on procedure to take a 6-0 lead in just two minutes.
Halfway through, Sindhu was leading 11-1 and finished the formality with a dominant performance.
Sen had to work hard for his victory over the Japanese when it took him an hour and 22 minutes to come out on top.
However, mixed doubles duo Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh suffered a back-to-back loss to Malaysians Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing, losing 21-8 21-18.
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