Indian pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde made a winning start but Lakshya Sen bowed out of the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament after suffering a straight game defeat to Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in the men’s singles opening round here on Tuesday.
Lakshya, who had reached the finals of Hong Kong Open, looked off-colour from the start to eventually go down 7-21 16-21 to the world number 29 Nhat.
Later in the day, Rohan and Ruthvika notched up a 21-12, 21-19 victory over the Ukrainian combination of Oleksii Titov and Yevheniia Kantemyr.
The Indian duo will next face local favourite and World Championships bronze medallists Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue, seeded fifth.
Last week, Lakshya, the 24-year-old from Almora, had defeated Nhat in a three-game opener at Denmark Open but he was erratic in Paris, repeatedly hitting wide and into the net while struggling to find rhythm against his opponent’s steep smashes.
The Indian’s deep tosses often missed the lines, and his attacking play lacked precision as he trailed 2-7 early in the opening game.
Despite doing most of the hard work in rallies, Lakshya frequently faltered on the finishing shot. He was six points behind at the interval after another wide return and never recovered as Nhat moved to 19-7 before sealing the opener with a crisp cross-court winner.
The change of ends brought little change in fortune for the world No. 16 Indian, who quickly fell behind 1-6 in the second game. Though he narrowed the gap to 4-6, a series of unforced errors saw Nhat restore an 11-5 advantage at the break.
Lakshya mounted a brief fightback to 11-15 but mistakes at crucial points again hurt his chances. At 14-17, a long rally ended with a backhand into the net, and two more errors gave Nhat six match points. The Indian saved two before the Irish shuttler finished the contest with a deceptive cross-court shot.