Saina, Sindhu, Srikanth, Lakshya advance To 2nd Round

Birmingham: Top Indian shuttlers — PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the second round of the 2022 All-England Open Badminton Championships after winning their respective first-round matches, here on late Wednesday night.

Sindhu, the world No 7, defeated Chinese world No 17 Wang Zhi Yi 21-18, 21-13 in her first-round match of the BWF Super 1000 tournament.

Two-time Olympic medallists began the match strongly and raced to a handy lead after the early exchanges. Wang Zhi Yi tried to pull the game back but Sindhu's early momentum proved to be the difference. In the second game, the India ace continued to dominate her Chinese opponent and went up 9-0 in quick time. She went on to seal the match in 42 minutes.

Sindhu, the sixth seed in the tournament, will now face the winner of the match between Japan's Sayaka Takahashi and Supanida Katethong of Thailand in the second round.

Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal ranked world No 25, defeated world No 51 Beatriz Corrales of Spain 21-17, 21-19 in straight games.

Corrales had replaced Saina Nehwal's initial opponent, Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand. The world No 10 Thai shuttler pulled out from the tournament at the last minute. Nehwal will be up against world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the second round.

In men's singles, HS Prannoy lost to German Open champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn 21-15 24-22 while former world championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth went down to Tokyo Olympics champion Viktor Axelsen 20-22, 11-21, an olympics.com report said.

Another top Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen, who won silver at the German Open last week, defeated compatriot Sourabh Verma 21-17, 21-7 in his opening match of the England Open. Kidambi Srikanth, ranked world No 12 beat Thai world No 21 Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-18, 21-14 while Parupalli Kashyap lost 11-21, 18-21 to world No 5 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.

In women's doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand stunned India Open champions Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard 17-21, 22-20, 21-14. However, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost to Japan's Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi 9-21, 13-21 and made an early exit.

Top Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, ranked world No 8, beat Scotland's Alexander Dunn and Adam Hall 21-17, 21-19. The Indians saved four-game points against the world No. 36 pair in the second game to move into the next round.

In other results for Indian shutters on Day 1, Sameer Verma lost to Mark Caljouw 18-21, 11-21 while Krishna Prasad Garaga-Vishnuvardhan Goud also went down to Mark Lamsfuss-Marvin Seidel 16-21, 19-21.

Srivedya Gurazada-Ishika Jaiswal lost to Rachel Honderich-Kristen Tsai 21-9, 21-4 and Meghana Jakkampudi-S Ram Poorvisha lost against Puttita Supajirakul-Supissara Paewsampran 5-21, 3-21. On the other hand, MR Arjun-Dhruv Kapila lost to Muhammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan 21-15, 12-21, 18-21.

Also read: Chen/Jia suffer first-round loss at the All England Badminton Open

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