Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and B. Sai Praneeth were the only Indians to advance to the second round on day one of the All England Open badminton Championships as P.V. Sindhu, Sameer Verma and H.S. Prannoy crashed out in the first round. None of the doubles pairs could cross the first hurdle either.
As it happened: All England Championships
Saina defeated Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour in straight games 21-17, 21-18 and Srikanth notched a similarly easy victory against Brice Leverdez, beating him 21-13, 21-11. Saina will face Denmark's Line Kjaersfeldt in the second round of the BWF World Tour Super 1000 event while Srikanth lined up a second round match against Indonesian Jonatan Christie.
Sameer Verma lost to sixth seed Viktor Axelsen despite winning the first game 21-16. The match slipped out of the Indian's hands in the second game as the Dane came from behind to take a 14-9 lead and win the second game 21-18. Axelsen breezed through the decider after taking an 8-0 lead and won the match 16-21, 21-8, 21-14.
Earlier, P.V. Sindhu went down in three games to South Korea's Sung Ji-Hyun despite a determined comeback in the second game. The Indian saved three match points at 17-20 in the second to take the match to the decider, during which she saved five match points before suffering her fourth first-round loss at the USD 1 million event.
READ | All England: Sindhu crashes out in first round
In men’s singles, 2017 Singapore Open champion B. Sai Praneeth defeated compatriot HS Prannoy 21-19 21-19 in a pulsating contest.
The women’s doubles pair of Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S. Ram fought hard before losing 21-18 12-21 12-21 to the Russian combination of Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Daveltova.
In women's singles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy lost to Japanese pair Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto. The Indian pair looked good the in the first game, coming from behind to win it 21-16. A tight second game went in the Japanese duo's favour 28-26. Ashwini and Sikki let slip a three-point advantage at the mid-game interval as Tanaka and Yonemoto took the game 21-16 and dumped the Indians out of the All England Open.
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