Kidambi Srikanth fails to qualify for Round of 16 and more…

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Lakshya Sen entered the round of 16 of the BWF World Championships

Day 3 was full of dominating performances for men in the BWF World Championships, as Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy won their respective ‘Round of 32’ matches. Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and D. Kapila/Arjun MR, on the other hand, advanced to the next round after winning their second-round matches.

Here are the highlights of Wednesday matches:

Men’s Singles

Lakshya Sen vs Luis Enrique Penalver

Lakshya Sen is in the form of his life as he won his ‘Round of 32’ match against Luis Enrique Penalver by 21-17, 21-10 at the BWF World Championships. It was yet another easy victory for the Indian shuttler.

Lakshya is now set to face HS Prannoy in his round of 16, which is going to be a historic clash. The match will take place on August 26. As it is not a medal match so one has to take an exit that day while the other one will play the quarterfinals.

HS Prannoy vs Kento Momota

HS Prannoy stunned the 2-time champion Kento Momota to enter the pre-quarterfinals

HS Prannoy stunned the 2-time champion Kento Momota to enter the pre-quarterfinals

Another phenomenal victory for HS Prannoy came as he stunned Kento Momota 21-17, 21-16 to enter the round of 16. He will face Lakshya Sen in his next round, which is going to be a classic encounter. The fans just can’t wait to witness two Indians playing against each other in Tokyo. The winner of the clash will move to the quarterfinals.

Srikanth Kidambi vs Zhao Junpeng

This came as a shocker for Indian fans as Srikanth lost to J.P. Zhao in straight sets, 9-21, 17-21. There was not even a single moment where Srikanth looked comfortable in the match against the unseeded Zhao. Srikanth, who was the silver medalist in the previous edition of the World Championships, accepted that he could have played better.

Men’s Doubles

Chirag Shetty/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy vs Jonathan Solis/Anibal Marroquin

Sheer dominance was witnessed in this encounter as Chirag and Satwiksairaj comfortably beat the Guatemalan duo 21-8, 21-10 in the 2nd round match held on Wednesday. 

Their stunning performance continued after a successful Commonwealth Games held earlier this month. The Indian duo will meet the Danish pair Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede on Friday in the pre-quarters.

Dhruv Kapila/Arjun Madathil Ramachandran vs Anders Skaarup Rasmussen/Kim Astrup

The pair of Dhruv and Arjun has been extraordinary in this edition of the BWF World Championships. Though they had to fight hard in the first round against Kedran and Jomkoh, this victory was comfortable and must have raised confidence for the upcoming battle. 

The duo beat the Danish pair 21-16, 21-16 to enter the next round with ease, where they are set to meet Loh Kean Heen and Terry Hee of Singapore on Thursday. If they can win from here, the duo will reach the quarterfinals of the historic event.

Women’s Doubles

Shikha Gautam/Ashwini Bhat vs Kong Hee-yong/Kim So-yeong

The Indian women had a terrible outing at the BWF World Championships on Wednesday as the pair of Shikha Gautam and Ashwini Bhat lost to Kong Hee-yong and Kim So-yeong 5-21, 21-18, 13-21. 

It was a hard-fought encounter for the Indian duo, but in the end, the South Koreans managed to earn the victory. After a poor first set, Shikha and Ashwini made a brilliant comeback to win the next one, 21-18, but couldn’t maintain the momentum in the final set.

Gayatri Gopichand/Treesa Jolly vs Thinaah Muralitharan/Pearly Tan

So much was expected from the duo after their great performance during the Commonwealth Games, but they couldn’t make it count in the BWF Championships. 

Gopichand/Jolly got defeated against the Malaysian pair Thinnah/Tan 8-21, 17-21 in the round of 32 to make an exit. The Indian shuttlers showed some promise in the second set, but the Malaysians were far too good to fall behind.

Ashwini Ponappa/Sikki Reddy vs Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan

A player like Ashwini Ponappa deserves to be a part of do-or-die encounters because of her excellent skills. She, along with Sikki Reddy won the first round comfortably but failed to deliver a similar performance against the Chinese duo of Chen and Jia. 

They lost the game 15-21, 10-21 to make an early exit from the tournament. Earlier in the tournament, they defeated the Maldivian pair 21-7, 21-9.

Pooja Dandu/Sanjana Santosh vs Shin Seung-chan/Lee So-hee

This was the fourth consecutive defeat for the Indian women on Wednesday after Gayatri/Jolly, Ponappa/Reddy, Gautam/Bhat, all made an exit from the tournament. Pooja and Sanjana lost to the South Korean duo 21-15, 21-7 without delivering any memorable performances. 

They had to fight hard in their first round as well, with the game going in three sets, but this was a straight defeat where the Indian shuttlers failed to show any intent.

On Thursday, Kapila and Arjun will be the ones to look at as they are set to take on Loh Kean Heen and Terry Hee of Singapore in the men’s doubles round of 16.

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