Women advance, men exit early in Australian Open badminton

Indians had mixed results at the Australian Open Super 500 badminton tournament in Sydney on Wednesday, with the women posting wins while at least three men made early exits.

Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu was the star performer on the day, with a convincing 21-13, 21-11 win over Peru's Ines Lucia Castillo Salazar. Tanvi Sharma, Malvika Bansod, Isharani Baruah and Tanya Hemanth also progressed to the round of 16.

Meanwhile, three men in the Indian contingent, including Malayali singles player Kiran George, bowed out in the opening round. Tharun Mannepalli and qualifier Saneeth Dayanand were the others to exit.

Kiran fought hard before losing to Malaysia's Justin Hoh, 19-21, 21-14, 15-21. Dayanand was crushed, 8-21, 10-21, by China's Hu Zhe'an. Tharun, meanwhile, had a chance to upset World No 10 Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei, but went down, 21-18, 13-21, 23-25.

Sindhu will face compatriot Isharani in the next round, with the 22-year-old from Assam advancing with a 22-20, 10-21, 21-14 win over China's Han Qian Xi.