In the All England Badminton Championships, World champion PV Sindhu advanced to the second round, but compatriots Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap suffered early exits after losing their respective opening round men’s singles matches. The Indian women’s duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy and men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also progressed to the second round with straight-game wins.
Sindhu displayed a disciplined performance to outwit world No. 32 Soniia Cheah of Malaysia 21-11, 21-17 in 38 minutes. Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal knocked out of All England Open Badminton Championships 2021 after retiring hurt against Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt. Olympic medalist Nehwal lost in a tough-fought clash against Mia Blichfeldt 8-21, 4-10.
In men’s singles, Srikanth lost to Ireland’s Nguyen Nhat 11-21, 21-15, 12-21 while Kashyap went down to top-seeded Japanese Kento Momota 13-21, 2-22 in 42 minutes. Earlier, the Indian contingent was cleared to participate after the players who had tested positive returned negative in retests.
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