Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen hardly broke a sweat and defeated Japanese shuttler Kodai Naraoka by a 21-12, 21-11 scoreline in his men's singles round of 32 match.
Sen won the opening game of the men's singles contest but Denmark's Rasmus Gemke fought back by engaging the Indian in long rallies to win 16-21, 21-15, 21-18 in the BWF World Tour Super 750 event, organised by the Badminton Association of India
The Indian duo, who had lost the first set, was trailing 17-10 in the second and appeared poised to defeat but the ace shuttlers ranked fifth in the world in men's doubles, made a stunning comeback to win the match 17-21, 22-20, 21-9.
The Japanese shuttler had a 2-0 head-to-head advantage over Prannoy going into their quarterfinal matchup on Friday at the opening BWF World Tour event of the season
Since Marin defeated Sindhu in the Swiss Open final in 2021, this was the first encounter between the Rio 2016 finalists. It was PV Sindhu's first game following her gold medal victory at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in August.
World Championships bronze medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty got the better of the Korean duo of Choi Sol-gyu and Kim Won-ho by 21-16, 21-13 in the first round of the tournament.
A 14-member India squad will be chosen at the tryouts to compete in the forthcoming Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships, which will take place in Dubai from February 14 to February 19.