Badminton: Saina bows out, Srikanth, Sindhu advance 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 and P.V Sindhu 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.

In the same category, fourth seed Sindhu registered a comeback win and defeated Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand 20-22, 21-17, 21-9 in 56 minutes match

In men's singles category, third seed Srikanth, on the other hand, played brilliantly to defeat 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.

His compatriot B. Sai Praneeth crashed out of the prestigious meet after playing a marathon match. The fifth seed Son Wan Ho of Korea defeated Praneeth 13-21, 21-15, 21-11 in a match which lasted around one hour.

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.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)