Indian badminton players delivered a mixed bag of results at the Hong Kong and Vietnam Opens this week. In the Hong Kong Open, a World Tour Super 500 event, the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand kicked off their campaign on a positive note. They secured a hard-fought victory over Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr, winning 21-14, 21-13 in their round of 32 match, advancing to the pre-quarterfinals. Unfortunately, the Panda sisters, Rutaparna and Swetaparna, suffered a disappointing loss in their women’s doubles round of 32 match, falling to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Pei Shan and Hung En-Tzu 11-21, 8-21.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles qualifiers, Chirag Sen had a mixed day. He triumphed in his round of 16 qualification match, defeating Canada’s Lai Yin Chung 21-12, 21-10. However, he couldn’t maintain the momentum, losing his next match against another Canadian, Sheng Xiaodong, 12-21, 21-13, 14-21. Manav Choudhary also faced a tough loss in his men’s singles qualification quarterfinal, falling to Hong Kong’s Chan Yin Chak 6-21, 10-21, after an earlier victory against Ukraine’s Oleksii Titov 21-14, 21-19.
In the Super 100 Vietnam Open, Indian shuttlers fared better. Alap Mishra, Bharat Raghav, and Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar all secured victories in their respective men’s singles round of 64 matches. Mishra overcame Chinese Taipei’s Liao Jhuo-Fu in a three-set thriller 21-15, 16-21, 21-12. Raghav also displayed impressive form, defeating Thailand’s Korakrit Laotrakul 21-15, 21-17. In an all-Indian clash, Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar emerged victorious against Abhishek Saini in a close encounter, winning 26-24, 19-21, 10-21. Unfortunately, Siddhanth Gupta and Abhishek Yeligar both fell short in their respective men’s singles round of 64 matches, losing to Indonesia’s Jia Wei Koh and China’s Wang Zheng Xing. Tarun Kumar Katam also exited the tournament after losing to Malaysia’s Ong Zhen Yi 15-21, 10-21.
The Hong Kong Open, a prestigious event on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) calendar, continues till Sunday. The tournament’s exciting matches and thrilling performances promise to deliver some captivating badminton action.
