Star Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen entered the men’s singles second round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament with a straight-game win over Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama on Tuesday.
Sen took just 40 minutes to get the better of Tsuneyama 21-12 21-17 in an opening-round clash.
Sen, who sneaked into the Olympic qualification with back-to-back semifinal finishes at French Open and All England Championships, will next be up against the winner of the match between seventh seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia and Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto.
However, it was curtains for Kiran George from the men’s singles event, but not before giving a tough fight to Hong Yang Weng of China 21-11 10-21 20-22.
The Indian mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy had to battle hard before prevailing 18-21 21-16 21-17 over the American pair of Vinson Chiu and Jennie Gai in the opening round.
But a herculean task awaits the Indian pair as it will take on the winner of the match between top seeds Si Wei Zheng and Ya Qiong Huang of China and Indonesian combination of Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto and Lisa Ayu Kusumawati in the next round.
Later in the day, the Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will be up against Chinese Taipei’s Yu-Pei Cheng and Yu Hsing Sun, while former world no.1 HS Prannoy will lock horns against Priyanshu Rajawat in an all-Indian men’s singles opening round contest.