Badminton: Saina bows out, Srikanth advances at All England Open

Birmingham, March 14 (IANS) Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal lost to World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the first round while Kidambi Srikanth advanced at the All England Open here on Wednesday.

Saina could not match up to the precision skills and the array of shots unleashed by Tai and bowed out of the meet going down 14-21, 18-21 in a match which lasted 38 minutes.

Third seed Srikanth, on the other hand, played brilliantly and and defeated Brice Leverdez of France 7-21, 21-14, 22-20.

After dropping a game, the Guntur player soaked up the pressure and bounced back in style to clinch the next two games.

In the women's doubles category, Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy also lost their first round match to the Japanese duo of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi 14-21, 13-21 to crash out of the meet.

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