Spain Masters 2023: Sindhu, Srikanth, Praneeth move into second round; Satwik-Chirag forfeit match

New Delhi, March 30:  Ace Indian badminton players PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the second round in their respective singles matches at the Madrid Spain Masters 2023 while the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty forfeited their match due to injury, here.

Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu, the world No. 11 in the latest badminton rankings, defeated Switzerland’s Jenjira Stadelmann 21-10, 21-14 in a 31-minute long first round women’s singles match on Wednesday night.

This was Sindhu’s second win over Jenjira Stadelmann this month, having beaten the European shuttler at the Swiss Open 2023 recently.

However, in the men’s doubles, India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won the Swiss Open 2023 recently, retired just seven minutes into their match against the world No. 41 Japanese duo of Ayato Endo and Yuta Takei after an injury to Satwik.

“I just came back from an injury so I wasn’t 100 percent fit for the match so I didn’t want to push it,” Satwiksairaj explained the decision to forfeit the match.

“We had a good last week and we played good matches at the All England Open so we didn’t want to push ourselves too much as we have more important tournaments coming up,” he added.

In the women’s doubles, the pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, ranked 18th in the world, suffered a 21-18, 21-16 defeat at the hands Rena Miyaura and Ayako Sakuramoto of Japan.

Earlier in the men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth, who slipped to 21st place in the world rankings, defeated Thailand’s world No. 32 Sitthikom Thammasin 21-11, 25-27, 23-21 in a hard-fought opener which lasted over one hour.

In another men’s singles match, B Sai Praneeth overcame the challenge from the 57th ranked Jan Louda of Czech Republic. The Indian won an hour-long duel by a 21-16, 18-21, 21-12 scoreline.

Aakarshi Kashyap, ranked 42nd in women’s singles, stunned Canada’s world No. 15 Michelle Li 12-21, 21-15, 21-18 while Ashmitha Chaliha beat France’s Leonice Huet 21-12, 22-20 at the BWF Super 300 event.

Malvika Bansod also progressed to the second round of women’s singles while Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George also crossed the first round hurdle in men’s singles.