3 days ago
Badminton-Top seeds An, Shi shine in Indonesia Open, Farhan and Christie fuel local hopes
FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Badminton - Women's Singles Gold Medal Match - Porte de La Chapelle Arena, Paris, France - August 05, 2024. Se Young An of South Korea in action during the match against Bing Jiao He of China. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo
JAKARTA (Reuters) -World number one An Se-Young eased past Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-14 21-11 in the opening round of the Indonesia Open while men's top seed and defender Shi Yuqi beat Lakshya Sen 21-11 20-22 21-15 on Tuesday.
Olympic champion An, who saw her unbeaten run this season snapped by Chen Yufei in the Singapore quarter-finals last week, faced little trouble beating her Thai opponent in 41 minutes.
Defending women's champion Yufei, seeded fifth, will face Thailand's Pornpicha Choeikeewong in her opener on Wednesday.
P.V. Sindhu was the only Indian singles player to reach the second round on Tuesday after her three-game win over old rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, who she last played in 2023.
"We played after a long time. I'm glad that we're still there, because we've been playing for more than a decade. It was always good to play with Nozomi," she said.
India's Sen, returning from an back injury that forced him to retire in his opening round match of Singapore Open, came back from a 9-2 deficit to win the second game but Shi eventually took control to close out the match.
Home hope Jonatan Christie, who last won a Super 1000 title at the 2024 All England Open, beat Singaporean Jason Teh after losing the first game.
Another local favourite Alwi Farhan beat Indian H. S. Prannoy and will meet Dane third seed Anders Antonsen in the second round. The 20-year-old Indonesian stunned Antonsen in their only meeting at the Sudirman Cup in May.
Malaysia's world number one pair Goh Sze-Fei and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani beat Taiwan's Lee Fang Chih and Lee Fang Jen to set up an all-Malaysian round of 16 clash with Nur Mohammed Azriyn Ayub and Tan Weekiong.
Indian pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also advanced.
(Reporting by Shifa Jahan in BengaluruEditing by Christian Radnedge)
