CHENNAI: It was a mixed day for India in the ongoing Singapore Open tournament. The doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made a winning return while singles specialist Lakshya Sen was forced to retire mid-match due to lower back pain on Wednesday. Later, the women's doubles combination of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also won their tie to advance to the second round.
From India's perspective, there was much interest on Satwik and Chirag at the BWF World Tour Super 750 event as they had been out of action for a little over two months due to injury. But it was Lakshya who entered the court first (Court 1) for his men's singles tie against Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei. Having pocketed the first game, Lakshya had made an ideal start. But he couldn't sustain the momentum and conceded the second game before injury troubles hit him. The score read 21-15, 17-21, 5-13 when Lakshya retired.
"Lakshya had to retire from his Singapore Open match due to lower back pain and spasm, which he had been experiencing since last Saturday during practice. Despite trying his best, he wasn't fully fit. The pain worsened during the match, and to prevent further injury, he pulled out of the third set. Our team will now focus on his recovery for upcoming tournaments," Lakshya's father and coach DK Sen told this daily in a statement.
Soon after that, it was Satwik and Chirag's turn to take the court. Returning to action for the first time since the All England Championship, the men's doubles duo eased past Malaysian duo of Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal 21-16, 21-13.
After taking some time to warm up to the occasion — the Malaysians had 3-0 and a 6-3 lead in the early stages of Game 1 — the Indians gradually found their groove and managed to take the lead before going on to close the game. Game 2 was one-way traffic as the Indians eventually cruised to the finish line.
Treesa and Gayatri, the No 8 seeds, took three games (14-21, 21-19, 17-21) to beat Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun.
Aakarshi Kashyap, the first Indian to take the court on the day, did very well to pocket the first game against World No 4 Han Yue of China. However, the youngster eventually ran out of steam and lost the women's singles first-round tie 21-17, 13-21, 7-21. Unnati Hooda, the other young face looking to establish her name at the elite level, also gave a good fight against World No 2 Wang Zhi Yi but she eventually lost 21-13, 9-21, 15-21. Anupama Upadhyaya, another singles shuttler with similar aspirations, lost 12-21, 16-21 against Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei
Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pairing of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde entered Round 2 after beating USA duo of Chen Zhi Yi and Francesca Corbett. Women's doubles pair of Vaishnavi Khadkekar and Alisha Khan, however, lost their tie to bow out. The women's doubles combination of Amrutha Pramuthesh and Sonali Singh also advanced via walkover.