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India's star shuttles Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat suffered defeats in the men's singles round of 32 at the China Masters 2023 in Shenzhen on Wednesday.
Later in the day, India's women's doubles players Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda were also ousted in the opening round of the BWF 750 tournament. Lakshya and Shi Yu Qi of China played out an hour-long cliffhanger which ended 21-19, 21-18 in the Chinese shuttler's favour. Interestingly, Lakshya had previously defeated Qi in the men's team gold medal match at the Asian Games 2023. Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth also suffered a defeat despite putting a fighting display 15-21, 21-14, 15-21 against the reigning world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in a match that lasted for 62 minutes. After losing the first game, the Indian badminton player recovered in the second with some superb net play and crisp smashes to restore parity. However, Vitidsarn never let Srikanth take the lead in the final and prevailed to advance to the second round. Meanwhile, Priyanshu Rajawat suffered a 17-21, 14-21 defeat in 46 minutes to Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. India's women's doubles players Rutuparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda's 15-21, 9-21 loss to third-seeded Chinese pair of Zhang Shu Xian-Zheng Yu in just over half an hour rounded off a disappointing outing for the Indian shuttlers on Day 2 of the tournament. HS Prannoy and the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy are the only Indians remaining in the fray at the China Masters 2023 badminton tournament. (ANI)
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