Lakshya Sen suffers shock exit at World Championships; Satwik-Chirag advance

India's Lakshya Sen suffered a shock second-round defeat to USA's Garret Tan, making an early exit from the BWF World Championships here on Wednesday.

The former World Championships bronze medallist struggled to match Tan's pace, attacking intent and deception, going down 21-19, 19-21, 17-21 in the men's singles round of 32.

Tan constantly put Sen under pressure with his aggressive play, making effective use of his overhead smashes. The American repeatedly targeted Sen's backhand rear corner and mixed jump smashes with clever deception to unsettle the Indian.

Satwik-Chirag advance
Indian men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after receiving a walkover in the second round.

The fifth-seeded Indians, who have already won two bronze medals at the World Championships, had received a first-round bye and were scheduled to face Scotland's Alexander Dunn and Adam Pringle.

The Scottish pair withdrew after Dunn suffered a right ankle injury during his mixed doubles match earlier in the day. Dunn and partner Julie Macpherson were trailing Thailand's second seeds Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai 8-18 when Dunn sustained the injury.

The Indian mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila also advanced to the pre-quarterfinals with a comfortable 21-11, 21-11 victory over Macau's Leong Iok Chong and Ng Weng Chi.

Young Unnati Hooda, making her World Championships debut, bowed out after squandering an opening-game advantage against Canada's 12th seed Michelle Li.

Unnati won the opening game 21-11 but could not maintain the momentum, losing the next two 9-21, 21-23 to exit in the women's singles round of 32.

In men's doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun also crashed out after losing 17-21, 14-21 to Korea's Kang Min Hyuk and Ki Dong Ju in their round-of-32 encounter.
(With PTI inputs)