Saina, Sindhu win; Prannoy ousted
New Delhi, Jan. 31: H. S. Prannoy lost in the opening round while Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth advanced at the $ 350,000 India Open Super 500 badminton tournament here on Wednesday.
Prannoy looked uncomfortable as he took the court against qualifier Shreyansh Jaiswal and lost 4- 21, 6- 21. Prannoy’s movements were restricted by foot corns.
In women’s singles, Saina defeated Denmark’s Sofie Dahl 21- 15 21- 9, while defending champion Sindhu dumped another Dane, Natalia Rohde, 21- 10, 21- 13.
Saina will next face Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt, while Sindhu will take on either Vaidehi Choudhari or Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri in the second round.
Olympic champion Carolina Marin and Thailand’s superstar Ratchnaok Intanon too impressed in the women’s singles while third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei and fourth seed Shi Yuqi from China looked good in their first round outings in the men’s singles.
Second seed Srikanth, who is returning from an injury layoff, got past Hong Hong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu 21- 17, 21- 18. The 24year- old, who had a dream run in the 2017 season winning four titles out of the five finals he played, was content with his form and fitness.
“I have a tough draw and keeping in mind my recent form, I want to focus on getting back the momentum first,” he said.
Prannoy said the new Badminton World Federation schedule, which makes it mandatory for the top 15 singles players to play in 12 tournaments of the Super 1000, Super 750 and Super 500 series, left him with no option but to play through pain having missed the first two Super 500 tournaments at Malaysia and Indonesia.
“I had to participate in the India Open because of the new BWF rule of mandatory 12 tournaments. I couldn’t 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, so I had to play though I am in no position to play,” Prannoy said.
Asked what was the injury, Prannoy said: “I developed corns in my foot in two- three places and I went for treatment. I will go for another procedure on Thursday. I couldn’t train and picked up the racquet first time in 15 days.”
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 Aakarshi Kashyap and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde too crossed the first hurdle in the women’s singles. — Agencies