China Masters: B Sumeeth Reddy-N Sikki start campaign with win

Shenzhen [China], November 19 (ANI): Indian mixed doubles duo of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy secured a win in their opening round match at the ongoing China Masters badminton tournament on Tuesday.
The world number 32 mixed doubles pair took just over an hour to remove American duo of Presley Smith and Jennie Gai, 145th in the world badminton rankings, 23-21, 17-21, 21-17, as per Olympics.com.
The Indian duo will be up against the China's current world number two-ranked duo of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping, who are also the top seeds, in the round of 16. Ping secured the mixed doubles gold medal at the Paris Olympics this year with Wang Yilyu as partner.
Among the other Indian players playing, Priyanshu Rajawat bowed out of the men's singles event after a loss to Indonesia's Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo by 24-22, 13-21, 18-21.
Rajawat took a lead in the first game however, he could not maintain the momentum in the next two games, except for a brief period in the decider when he led by four points.
Coming to the women's singles action, the 46th-ranked Aakarshi Kashyap was outdone by Japan's world No. 14 Tomoka Miyazaki, who won the match, 21-10, 21-18.
Anupama Upadhyaya will play USA's Beiwen Zhang later.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, the Indian top-ranked men's doubles pair, will also be in action. The duo will be playing for the first time since the Paris Olympics 2024, where they failed to secure a medal.
PV Sindhu, Malvika Bansod, Lakshya Sen and Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand will also be in action in Shenzhen from Wednesday. (ANI)