Day 2 of the World Championships continues with three Indian entries across the evening session. Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi take on Stoeva/Stoeva in the Women’s Doubles Round of 32 on Court 2. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand face Lam/Lee in another Women’s Doubles Round of 32 clash on Court 1.
In Men’s Singles, Lakshya Sen takes on Chia-Hao Filimon in the Round of 64, also on Court 1. India will look to build on its campaign as the day’s remaining matches get underway.
Lakshya Sen is next in action for India in the men’s singles Round of 64, where he will face Austria’s Collins Valentine Filimon.
In women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will take on USA’s Lauren Lam and Allison Lee in the Round of 32, while Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi face Bulgaria’s Stefani Stoeva and Gabriela Stoeva.
Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde suffered a narrow defeat against Canada’s Jonathan Lai and Crystal Lai in the mixed doubles Round of 64. The Indian pair won the opening game 22-20, but the Canadians fought back to win 21-19, 21-17 in the next two games.
Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh also bowed out after an epic three-game battle against Türkiye’s Emre Sonmez and Yasemen Bektas. The Indian pair won the first game 21-16, but lost the next two 30-29, 24-22 in a marathon contest.
Unnati Hooda began her debut World Championships campaign with a straight-games victory over Myanmar’s Thet Htar Thuzar, winning 22-20, 21-16 in the women’s singles Round of 64. She will next face 13th seed Michelle Li of Canada.
Ayush Shetty produced the biggest upset of the tournament so far, defeating top seed and defending champion Shi Yuqi of China 21-14, 13-21, 21-19 in a thrilling men’s singles first-round clash.
M R Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan also advanced after Ireland’s Scott Guildea and Paul Reynolds retired while trailing 16-21, 4-6 in the men’s doubles Round of 64.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand began their campaign with a comfortable 21-9, 21-13 win over Spain’s Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez in the women’s doubles Round of 64.
Former world champion PV Sindhu cruised into the next round after beating Ireland’s Sophia Noble 21-7, 21-11 in the women’s singles.
Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi also advanced after defeating Nikol Carulla and Carmen Maria Jimenez 22-20, 21-14 in the women’s doubles opening round.
Speaking after the match, Unnati said to reporters, on her judgement of the shuttle's landing on the court, "I have been playing a lot for many years, so that is the judgment. But yeah, like sometimes in drift conditions it is difficult, but I feel like here it is not that much difficult to judge if it is going out or in."
She said that in the first set, she was trying to understand the drift, and her opponent was going "neck-to-neck" with her and in the second game, she stuck to attacking and prevailed.
"In the first set, I was just trying to understand the drift and everything, but she was also playing, she was very good and all. It was going neck-and-neck, but yeah, I think in the last five points of the first game I controlled and stayed patient, and then she made some mistakes," she said.
