India’s Mithun Manjunath stunned fourth seed and world No.7 Kean Yew Loh of Singapore in the opening round while PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth secured easy wins at the Australia Open badminton tournament here on Wednesday.
Manjunath, ranked 50th in the world, beat Loh 21-19, 21-19 in the men’s singles first-round match that lasted 41 minutes.
Lakshya Sen,however, conceded his singles match against compatriot Kiran George due to an injury.
Fifth seed Sindhu, who has lost in the first round at seven different tour events this season and is playing under a new personal coach in Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, defeated compatriot Ashmita Chaliha 21-18, 21-13 in 36 minutes in her opening match.
In men’s singles, Srikanth, world No.19, defeated Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 21-18, 21-7, while sixth seed HS Prannoy had to dig deep to beat Cheuk Yiu Lee of Hong Kong 21-18, 16-21, 21-15. Priyanshu Rajawat beat Australia’s Nathan Tang 21-12, 21-16.
Aakarshi Kashyap beat Malaysia’s Jin Wei Goh 21-15, 21-17, but it was curtains for Malvika Bansod as she lost 20-22, 11-21 against Yu Po Pai of Chinese Taipei.
