Lakshya Sen rallies past Oldorff in Hylo Open first round

Lakshya Sen recovered from a game down to beat Joakim Oldorff in the first round of the Hylo Open Super 500 in Saarbrücken, Germany, on Wednesday. The seventh-seeded Indian won 16-21, 21-9, 21-13 in 61 minutes, ending a run of four consecutive round-of-32 exits at BWF World Tour events.

Four Indian players also advanced in women’s singles: Unnati Hooda, Malvika Bansod, Isharani Baruah and Anmol Kharb. Aakarshi Kashyap and Devika Sihag were eliminated.

Lakshya turns match around

World No. 60 Oldorff took the opening game 21-16. Lakshya responded by conceding just nine points in the second game before taking the decider 21-13 against the Finnish player.

The result takes Lakshya through the opening round after four straight exits at the same stage of BWF World Tour events. The match was among Wednesday’s Indian singles results at the tournament.

Four Indian women progress

Sixth-seeded Unnati also had to come from behind. She lost the first game to Czechia’s World No. 77 Tereza Svabikova but recovered to win 17-21, 21-12, 21-11.

Malvika overcame compatriot Devika in another three-game match, winning 18-21, 21-10, 21-14. The result sent Malvika into the second round while ending Devika’s campaign.

Isharani beat Germany’s Miranda Wilson 21-19, 21-9 in 38 minutes. After a close opening game, Isharani allowed Wilson only nine points in the second.

Anmol defeated Sri Lanka’s Ranithma Liyanage 21-18, 22-20 in 47 minutes to join them in the next round. Aakarshi, however, lost 12-21, 18-21 to Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova.

Next opponents confirmed

Unnati will face Denmark’s Frederikke Østergaard, who is ranked 116th in the BWF Rankings. Malvika’s second-round opponent is Canadian World No. 49 Wen Yu Zhang.

Isharani will play eighth-seeded Dane Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt for a quarterfinal place, while Anmol faces third-seeded Dane Line Christophersen.

P. V. Sindhu, H. S. Prannoy, Ashmita Chaliha, Tharun Mannepalli, Kiran George and S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian were also scheduled to begin their singles campaigns later on Wednesday.