Srikanth, Dhruv-Sikki advance to second round

BALI: Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth entered the second round of the men's singles event at the Indonesia Masters 2021 badminton tournament after beating France's Christo Popov, here on Wednesday.

Former world No 1 Srikanth beat Popov 21-18, 15-21, 21-16 in an hour and 15-minute long opening match.

He will now face the winner between Asian Games and Thomas Cup champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia or Thailand's Sitthikom Thammasin.

In the mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Dhruv Kapila and N Sikki Reddy pulled off an upset as they beat second seeds and home favourites Praveen Jordan and Melati Oktavianti 21-11, 22-20.

The impressive Indian duo played some aggressive badminton to register a convincing victory in just 30 minutes and will now face the pair of Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran of Thailand in the next round.

Meanwhile, the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap crashed out of the Indonesia Masters after losing 10-21 19-21 to Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.

Earlier, two-time Olympic medallists P V Sindhu and Lakshya Sen had reached the second round on Tuesday. (IANS)

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