Third seed Aakarshi Kashyap was the first big upset at the Syed Modi International Super 300 badminton tournament, crashing out in the first round at the Babu Banarasi Das Academy on Wednesday.
The 23-year old Indian, ranked 46th in the world, lost to Thailand’s World No. 94 Lalinrat Chaiwan 21-8, 21-12 in 33 minutes even as other top players had an easy outing on the opening day.
Outplayed
Aakarshi was outplayed in the opening game and though she tried to fight her way back in the second, Lalinrat raced past the finish line.
This was Aakarshi’s third loss to Lalinrat — runner-up to Carolina Marin here in 2019 — in as many meetings, both at the senior and junior levels.
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P.V. Sindhu got the better of youngster Anmol Kharb 21-17, 21-15 while Lakshya Sen breezed past Malaysian qualifier Sholeh Aidil 21-12, 21-12 in the 210,000 USD event.
“It’s always nice to play on home ground.
“I was playing her (Anmol) for the first time though I had seen her game before and was confident of doing well today. But it was my first match also.
“I was trying to keep the rallies long. There were some mistakes but nothing that I was worried about,” said Sindhu.
Also advancing to the pre-quarterfinals were 2022 runner-up Malvika Bansod, rising stars Unnati Hooda and Tasnim Mir and the women’s pairs of Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand.
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