Korea Masters Badminton: Tanvi Sharma Leads Strong Women's Show, Kidambi Srikanth Crashes Out
Newly-crowned Taipei Open champion Tanvi Sharma led a strong Indian showing in the women's singles, but former world championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth suffered an opening-round exit in men's singles
Newly-crowned Taipei Open champion Tanvi Sharma led a strong Indian showing in the women's singles, but former world championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth suffered an opening-round exit in men's singles as India endured a mixed day at the Korea Masters Super 300 badminton tournament on Wednesday. Third seed Tanvi, who recently clinched her maiden BWF World Tour title at the Taipei Open, eased past China's Yuan An Qi 21-16, 21-15 to progress to the second round.
Rakshitha Ramraj recovered from a game down to beat Korea's Yoo A Yeon 22-24, 21-12, 21-13, while Mansi Singh fought back to defeat Kim Joo Eun 14-21, 21-19, 21-9.
Fifth seed Isharani Baruah also advanced to the next round after overcoming Korea's Lee So Yul 21-18, 15-21, 21-7, while eighth seed Anmol Kharb rallied from a game down to beat Hong Kong's Lo Sin Yan Happy 16-21, 21-17, 21-12.
Ashmita Chaliha defeated Japan's Riko Hiramoto 22-20, 21-18 and Shriyanshi Valishetty brushed aside Chinese Taipei's Pai Yu Po 21-15, 21-14 to book their places in the second round.
The only Indian casualties in women's singles were Tanya Hemanth, who went down 16-21, 20-22 to top seed Hina Akechi of Japan, and Aakarshi Kashyap who lost 22-20 21-23 3-21 to Kim Min Ji of Korea.
In the men's singles, third seed Srikanth lost 20-22, 21-14, 12-21 to Israel's Daniil Dubovenko in a hard-fought opening-round contest.
The defeat capped a disappointing day for the Indian men's singles contingent, with Kiran George, Mithun Manjunath, Tharun Mannepalli and Rounak Chouhan also making first-round exits.
Kiran lost 15-21, 9-21 to Korea's Park Sang Yong, Mithun was beaten 11-21, 9-21 by China's Zhu Xuan Chen, while Mannepalli fought hard before losing 13-21, 21-12, 19-21 to Korea's Yoo Tae Bin.
Rounak went down fighting 21-23, 19-21 to fourth seed Jeon Hyeok Jin of Korea.
Saneeth Dayanand was forced to retire while trailing 11-21, 4-13 against top seed and world No. 21 Yudai Okimoto of Japan.
In the doubles, sixth-seeded mixed pair of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Shruti Mishra came through an all-Indian opening-round clash against Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Radhika Sharma 20-22, 21-10, 21-15.
In the women's doubles, Sonali Singh and Ritika Thaker recovered from a game down to beat Korea's Bang Ji Sun and Hyun Ji Jang 13-21, 21-15, 21-12.
However, it was otherwise a disappointing day for the Indian doubles combinations.
Seventh-seeded mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Rawat and Maneesha K lost 21-18, 14-21, 17-21 to Malaysia's Loo Bing Kun and Nurul Maisarah Mohamad Zamani, while men's doubles pair of Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu went down 17-21, 15-21 to Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Aaron Tai.