BWF World Tour Finals: Srikanth, Sindhu make winning starts, Lakshya though to semis

India’s ace shuttlers PV Sindhu and Srikanth Kidambi started off with straight-game victories in their group stage matches at the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals in Bali on Wednesday while doubles pairs tasted defeats.

Former world No 1 secured a straight-game win over France’s Toma Junior Popov while reigning world champion Sindhu also followed that up with a solid win, and the exact same scoreline of 21-14, 21-16, against Denmark’s Line Christophersen.

In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen emerged as the winner in his highly anticipated clash with world No 2 Kento Momota after the latter retired just two points into the match. The score was at 1-1 in the first game when the Japanese star decided to retire after struggling with his movement, pointing to his back.

Momota and Rasmus Gemke both retired hurt in the first few minutes in their respective matches, leaving Lakshya Sen and top seed Viktor Axelsen as the winners from this group of four players and they are now set to progress to the semifinals.

Axelsen Sen “automatically progress to the knockout phase of the tournament with Momota and Gemke voiding their remaining matches,” the report by BWF said. “Under tournament regulations, Momota and Gemke’s remaining matches are walkovers. Their fixtures…

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