Saina, Sindhu Praneeth win; Prannoy loses

NEWDELHI: Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu advanced to the second round while HS Prannoy made an early exit after playing with corn on his feet in the $350,000 India Open Super 500 badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

With BWF making it mandatory for top shuttlers to play 12 tournaments in a year, World No 10 Prannoy took the court against Shreyansh Jaiswal despite developing foot corn and lost the opening-round match to the youngster 4-21, 6-21 within 13 minutes.

Among other Indians, B Sai Praneeth had to dig deep to see off 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph 21-11, 17-21, 21-17, while Sameer Verma shocked seventh seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark 22-20, 21-8.

In women’s singles, Indonesia Masters finalist Saina got past Denmark’s Sofie Holmboe Dahl 21-15, 21-9, while defending champion Sindhu dumped Denmark’s Natalia Koch Rohde 21-10, 21-13.

Playing his first tournament of the season after missing the Indonesia Masters due to injury, second seed Kidambi Srikanth overcame Malaysia’s Lee Cheuk Yiu 21-17, 21-18 to set up a clash with Malaysia’s Iskandar Zulkarnain. Commonwealth Games champion P. Kashyap stunned world No 17 Denmark’s Hans-kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-14, 21-18, making his first second round of a major event in more than a year.

The new BWF calender makes it mandatory for top 15 singles players to play in 12 tournaments out of the Super 1000, Super 750 and Super 500 events.

“I had to participate in the India Open because of the new BWF rule of mandatory 12 tournaments. I could not even concede the match because I have a compatriot as opponent and according to BWF rules if you concede against the same country opponent, you won’t get ranking points,” said Prannoy.

“BWF does not see any genuine reason. There is no flexibility,” he added.

Saina also slammed the BWF and asked for a reduction in the number of mandatory tournaments for top players. “I tell you the sport is killing. It is a tough calendar for players. I feel that it should be reduced.

“I understand the point of sponsorship and money and not at the cost of players not playing well and not giving their best. We will not have a champion, we will only have tournaments,” she said.