Sydney, June 9 (IANS) India’s MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan cruised into the second round of men’s doubles at the Australian Badminton Open after beating the American duo of Arden Quan Lee and Stanley Xing.

The Indians registered a 21-13, 21-13 win in their opening round match here at Olympic Boulevard.

Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan led the first game from start to end and won it comfortably. The American duo put up a fight early in the second game and went into the break trailing by a single point. After the restart, the Indian duo scored the next 10 points quickly while conceding just two and closed out the match in straight games.

Meanwhile, India’s other men’s doubles pair in the tournament – Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu and Arjun Reddy Pochana suffered an exit after losing 21-15, 21-15 to the local pair of Kanki Igawa and Ooi Ye Hern in the opening round.

Doddavarapu and Pochana’s exit leaves Arjun-Amsakarunan as the only Indian challenge remaining in the men’s doubles in the tournament. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, India’s top-ranked doubles team, skipped the BWF Super 500 meet on account of the shoulder injury Satwik suffered last week in Indonesia.

Earlier in the day, India’s Saneeth Dayanand, appearing in his maiden Super 500 badminton tournament, made the cut for the men’s singles main draw after winning two qualifying matches.

Dayanand and Tharun Mannepalli will be carrying Indian hopes in the men’s singles as Lakshya Sen, who won the Australian Open men’s singles title last year, isn’t defending his crown this year, while Ayush Shetty and HS Prannoy withdrew at the 11th hour after appearing in the entry list initially.

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, 11th in the women’s singles rankings, will start her campaign in Australia against Peru’s Ines Lucia Castillo Salazar on Wednesday. Malvika Bansod will also be in action.

–IANS

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