Sindhu loses in first round, Prannoy, Lakshya Sen advance

India’s star shuttler PV Sindhu made an early exit from the BWF World Championship losing her first match of the 2023 edition of the championship being played in Denmark’s capitol Copenhagen.

In men's singles, however, both 9th seed HS Prannoy and 11th seed Lakshya Sen advanced to the third round. Prannoy beat Indonesia's Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 21-9, 21-14 to set up a clash with 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew, who the Indian leads 3-1.

Lakshya beat Korean Jeon Hyeok Jin 21-11, 21-12 to set up a clash with last time's finalist and third seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who he has a 5-3 lead over.

Sindhu appeared to be off-colour and was easily outclassed by the unseeded Japanese player Nozomi Okuhara in straight games, 14-21, 14-21 despite having a 9-0 lead in the second game. This is the earliest she has lost at the Worlds since she won her first breakthrough medal as a 17-year-old exactly a decade ago.

Sindhu appeared to be a shadow of the player she was. She hasn't been herself since her return from a stress fracture in her left foot sustained during her gold-medal run at the Commonwealth Games last August.

In 2023, she has lost in the first round of seven of the 15 BWF tournaments she has played. She has reached just one final and three semis, losing to opponents that she had previously beaten regularly. She has fallen down the rankings to No 15 and is no longer seeded on Tour, which has made the draws more difficult.

Sindhu struggled with her control, making numerous unforced errors and missing the lines when she tried to force play. Her movement, which was hampered in the early part of her return, has gotten before but she didn't have the speed or power she used to, which led the error count that proved to be her undoing.