Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu crashed out of the All England Open on Wednesday after losing in the first round to Zhang Yi Man of China. Sindhu lost the women’s singles match, which lasted 39 minutes, 17-21, 11-21.
Sindhu had entered the women’s singles tournament after a less-than-ideal start to the 2023 season. Sindhu had lost in the first round of the Malaysia Open and the India Open after a long layoff. She later split up with her coach, Park Tae Sang. And against Zhang at All England, one of the major events where she doesn’t have a great record, she appeared out of sorts from the start. Zhang defeated her 21-17, 21-11 in the first round of the BWF World Tour this year.
On the other hand, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy delivered outstanding performances to advance to the second round of the men’s singles competition with hard-fought straight-game victories. Sen, who has dropped to world number 19, will face Anders Antonsen in the second round, while Prannoy will face Indonesian third seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
Meanwhile, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly produced another memorable result on Wednesday, returning to the venue where they made the world of badminton sit up and take notice of their talents. The Indians stunned the seventh seed in women’s doubles, Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai, in the first round of the All England Open in Birmingham.
After a sensational run, the young Indian women’s doubles pairing defeated Thailand’s world No. 8 for the first time in five meetings. In fact, the Indian teenagers had lost all four previous meetings in a row. Later in the day, Srikanth and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty are among the Indians in action.
