Kidambi Srikanth defeated Lakshya Sen in an all-Indian duel to advance to the men’s singles second round of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Paris on Wednesday.
Sameer Verma, meanwhile, registered an upset win over Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia to also progress to the second round.
Srikanth, who won silver at the 2021 World Championships, beat junior compatriot Sen 21-18, 21-18 in a first-round match that lasted 46 minutes. This was only the second career match between the top two Indians. Sen had lost in their earlier meeting at the semifinals of the 2021 World Championships, where he went on to win bronze.
Srikanth next faces the winner of the first-round match between Rasmus Gemke of Denmark and Nhat Nguyen of Ireland.
Verma, unseeded, beat sixth-seeded Ginting 21-15, 21-23, 22-20 in a hard-fought upset win in a first-round match that lasted one hour and 17 minutes. The Indian made a remarkable fightback in the deciding game by saving two match points after being 18-20 down.
Verma thus avenged Ginting for his loss in the Swiss Open in March. He will face Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the second round.
HS Prannoy also made it to the second round with a hard-fought win over Liew Daren of Malaysia in the men’s singles. Prannoy defeated his lower-ranked opponent 21-16, 16-21, 21-16. Prannoy will next face China’s Lu Guang Zu.
In the men’s doubles, the Indian pair of M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to the fifth-seeded Indonesian duo of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardiant 15-21, 16-21 in the first round.
