India ace Lakshya Sen made a fine start to the new season, advancing to the men's singles second round with a hard-fought win over Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore at the Malaysia Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
'Once you are out of the top 32, it becomes very tough to get back. Last year I couldn't really get entries into the 750 tournaments. To start this year with one is a positive step.'
Sen, who had broken the three-year jinx of first-round exits in the tournament when he defeated Singapore's Jia Heng Jason Teh on Wednesday, succumbed in the pre-quarterfinals against Hong Kong-China's Lee Cheuk Yiu 22-22, 15-21 in 53 minutes.
Later in the day, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen will face Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia.
Lee, 2019 Hong Kong open winner, had finished as runner-up in the last edition and his dream of winning the title remained unfulfilled after he went down in the final for the second time in two years.
Earlier, former world No.1 Srikanth had to dig deep to outlast fellow Indian Tharun Mannepalli 15-21, 21-6, 21-19.
Returning to action after recovering from a back injury, star India shuttler H S Prannoy emerged as the lone Indian survivor at the Japan Masters, advancing to the second round after a gritty victory in Kumamoto on Wednesday.
A gold medallist at the 37th National Games, Mannepalli was trailing 4-7 in the first game before rallying to 12-9. He then took control and scored six straight points from 15-11 to seal the game.
Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, and Tharun Mannepalli progressed to the second round of the men's singles competition at the Macau Open Super 300 badminton tournament after registering fine wins on Wednesday.
Satwik-Chirag suffer shock defeat in opening round of Singapore Open
HS Prannoy made an early exit from the Korea Open Super 500 tournament
HS Prannoy and PV Sindhu marched into the pre-quarterfinals of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament in Basel.
He will next face sixth seed Li Shi Feng of China in the last-eight round.
With Srikanth's defeat, the Indian challenge in Hong Kong also came to an end.
Prannoy registered a 21-18, 22-20 win over the world number 12 Chen
With the two teams locked 2-2 in the overall tie after the first the three matches, it was left to their respective mixed doubles pairs to push them ahead.
Kidambi Srikanth entered the men's singles semi-finals at the Hong Kong Open after fifth seed Chen Long of China decided to quit the contest owing to an injury, in Hong Kong, on Friday.
Indian shuttlers B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma lived upto their billing and registered straight game victories to progress to the quarterfinals of the men's singles event at the Australian Open in Sydney, on Thursday.
Two-time Olympic medallist and fourth seed PV Sindhu made a positive start to her title defence on Wednesday, beating Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland 21-9, 21-16 in a lopsided opening round women's singles match.
Saina lost 9-21, 12-21 in the women's singles clash that lasted just 24 minutes
The world No. 6 Indian duo will next face Danish pair of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede later on Friday.
Lakshya Sen's woeful run continued as he made a first round exit
Fourth seeded Srikanth, who had claimed a silver medal at this year's Commonwealth Games, had to dig deep in his reservoir to outwit fellow Indian H S Prannoy 18-21, 30-29, 21-18 in a thrilling match, clocking an hour and seven minutes.
Indian challenge ended at the Hong Kong Open World Tour Super 500 tournament after Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma lost their respective men's singles quarterfinal matches on Friday.
Home favourites Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down in a tense final against world champions Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Sang Jae at India Open, settling for their second successive runners-up finish, in New Delhi on Sunday.
Lakshya Sen lost a tough three-game men's singles semifinal against Thailand's second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn at the Thailand Open in Bangkok.
Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth will look to arrest their slump in form when they begin their campaign at the Australia Open badminton tournament in Sydney on Tuesday.
Indian Mithun Manjunath stunned fourth seed and world number seven Kean Yew Loh of Singapore in the opening round while PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth secured straight-game wins.
Sindhu and Saina will once again be India's best bet as they look to put up a good show this week.
Sindhu, a 2019 World Champion, lost 14-21, 21-15, 14-21 to Zhang in a match that lasted 55 minutes.
The World No 11 Srikanth will take on China's Lu Guang Zu in the next round.
Jia Min was happy to execute her plan but acknowledged that her opponent was not at her best shape.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
World champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn crashed out of the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament
Saina, who has been battling illness and injuries, is going through a bad patch, having lost six times in the first round this season.
Ace Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round of the China Open Super Series after suffering straight game defeats in their respective events.
Teenage shuttler Lakshya Sen reaffirmed his status as one of India's rising talent as he gave legendary Lin Dan a scare before losing in three games at the Auckland Open Badminton Championship, in Auckland, on Thursday.
Star Indian shuttler P V Sindhu cruised into the quarter-finals of the All England Championships women's singles with a straight-game win over Sung Ji Hyun of Korea, in Birmingham, on Thursday.Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen was knocked out after losing in straight games to Victor Axelsen.
While Saina made short work of USA's Beiwan Zhang, second seed Sindhu had to dig deep to get the better of Japanese Sayaka Sato.
H S Prannoy lost in the opening round even as compatriots Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu entered the second round of the $ 350,000 India Open Super 500 tournament, in New Delhi on Wednesday.
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