BWF World Tour Finals | Lakshya Sen guaranteed place in playoffs, PV SIndhu wins too
Lakshya's opponent Momota retired from the match.
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Indian shuttlers were off to a positive start at theĀ BWF World Tour Finals 2021 with the likes of PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth registering solid wins. The two-time Olympics medalist Sindhu beat Denmark's Line Christophersen, who 21-14, 21-16, in her first match of Group A in womenās singles.
The Danish player was no match to the Indian as Sindhu took an 11-9 lead in the first game. The 2018 Tour winner then wrapped up the game soon at 21-14. In the second game, Line showed better skills with scores tied at 13-13 at one point, but then Sindhu wrapped up the match in a jiffy.
Now the Indian will take on Germanyās Yvonne Li and Thai shuttler Pornpawee Chochuwong in the next two group matches on Thursday and Friday.
On the other hand, Srikanth too won his match easily againstĀ Franceās Toma Junior Popov 21-14, 21-16. He will be up against Kunlavut Vitidsarn in his next group match on Thursday. In another men's singles match, Lakshya Sen was awarded the match after Kento Momota was forced to retire due to back pain.Ā
Another player, Rasmus Gemke also retired from the group, which guarantees Lakshya a spot in the playoffs.Ā
But in doubles, both the Indian teams were on the receiving end. Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy went down 21-14, 21-18 to the JapaneseĀ pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida.Ā Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to the Danish pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup RasmussenĀ 21-16, 21-5.
