Badminton World C’ships as it happened: Srikanth advances, Sai Praneeth knocked out in first round
All the live updates from Day 1.
12.43 am: Well, just the Srikanth Kidambi victory for India on the opening day. Defeat in women’s doubles, men’s doubles and finally men’s singles. There’ll be more Indian shuttlers in action on day two in Huelva, with HS Prannoy beginning his campaign. Do join in for our coverage.
12.38 am: A repeat of what happened at Tokyo 2020 as Mark Caljouw beats B Sai Praneeth 17-21, 21-7, 21-18 in an hour and 8 mins. The Indian led 14-8 in the decider but seemed to run out of gas at the end. Caljouw advances to the men’s singles round of 32.
Caljouw has closed the gap down from 8-14 to 13-14 in the decider. Sai Praneeth under pressure, can he close out the win?
Men’s singles, Sai Praneeth vs Caljouw 21-17, 7-21, 11-8: Sai Praneeth ups the intensity and takes a lead in the decider. The Indian also coming out on top after a brutal 40-shot rally, the longest of the match. Caljouw is still very much in this, though.
Vinayakk Mohanarangan: Second game Caljouw. 21-7. Started off with a series of long rallies, finishes with a series of quick points. Sai Praneeth just seemed to decide it was not worth pushing in this game. Let’s see if it pays off in the decider.
Men’s singles, Sai Praneeth vs Caljouw 21-17, 7-21: Caljouw blows away Sai Praneeth in the second game. We’re going to a decider. The Indian looking extremely short on confidence at the moment, making a number of errors.
Men’s singles, Sai Praneeth vs Caljouw 21-17, 4-11: Caljouw with a huge lead at the interval in the second game. Sai Praneeth looking frustrated a number of times on court. He quickly lost the momentum he had gained after winning the opener.
Vinayakk Mohanarangan: Sai Praneeth’s clearly got the better racket skills and that is holding him in good stead. But physically, he seems to be a notch below Caljouw. The Indian is having to buy time between rallies, trying to slow things down.
Men’s singles, Sai Praneeth vs Caljouw 21-17: Sai Praneeth takes the opening game in 20 minutes. The 14th seed played more aggressively as the game went on and Caljouw couldn’t catch up. This is already a better match than the one in Tokyo where Sai Praneeth was just totally off the pace.
Men’s singles, Sai Praneeth vs Caljouw 11-9: Not much to choose between the two players in the opener. Sai Praneeth was trailing 5-8 but he turns it around to take a 11-9 lead to the interval.
Time for Basel 2019 bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth and he takes on Mark Caljouw in the first round. A repeat of their meeting at the Tokyo 2020 group stage. It was heartbreak for the Indian then. Caljouw is the All England semifinalist.
Men’s singles, Srikanth vs Abian 21-12, 21-16: Srikanth far too good for Abian. Some errors from Srikanth allowing Abian to make things look a lot closer than they actually were. It gave the home crowd something to cheer for. Good, solid start.
Men’s singles, Srikanth vs Abian 21-12, 11-7: Srikanth keeping things steady, getting used to the conditions and that is all he really needs to do.
Men’s singles, Srikanth vs Abian 21-12, 9-5: Abian was leading 5-4 but then Srikanth went on a run of five straight points to settle into a comfortable lead again.
Men’s singles, Srikanth vs Abian 21-12, 0-1: A 40-shot rally to kick off the second game and Abian won it with a nice smash down the line.
Men’s singles, Srikanth vs Abian 21-12: Nice attacking start by Srikanth and he didn’t look back after that. In just under 14 minutes he has the lead. Was never stretched.
Men’s singles, Srikanth vs Abian 11-2: Srikanth making it look easy and taking a huge advantage into the first break. Just needs to keep doing what he was doing in the first half.
Men’s singles, Srikanth vs Abian 4-2: Srikanth had looked like he was slowly starting to get to his best in the last few tournaments he played and he will like to carry that form forward today.
Next up: Kidambi Srikanth vs Pablo Abian
Men’s doubles, IND vs Den 16-21, 15-21: Just not good enough from the Indian pair. Eipe/Kjaer was just too fast at the net. The Indians would draw close and then make errors to hand the advantage right back to the Danes.
Men’s doubles, IND vs Den 16-21, 8-11: Better start from the Indian pair but they are losing the net battles and that is hurting them. They are in trouble and need a different plan.
Men’s doubles, IND vs Den 16-21: The Indian pair made it 13-14 before the Danes pulled away once again to take the opening game 16-21 in 16 minutes. No long rallies on display yet.
Men’s doubles, IND vs Den 12-14: Nice little period for the Indian pair. They have cut the lead down to just two points. Attri finding a better rhythm.
Men’s doubles, IND vs Den 6-11: It didn’t start very well for the Indian pair. The Danes have been good at the net and their anticipation has been great. Attri hasn’t been at his best so far either. A chance to regroup during the mid-game interval.
9.57 pm: Time for India’s Attri/Reddy to take on Denamrk’s Eipe/Kjaer. The pairs have never met before.
Women’s doubles, IND (retd) 12-21 NED: Pooja Dandu has decided that will be all. She chose to go on for the opening game. And after the game went to the Dutch pair 21-12, the Indians call the game off.
Women’s doubles, IND vs NED: There’s not much to separate these two pairs on the world rankings but on court at the moment, the Indians are well behind. Pooja just getting by with her racket skills at the moment, movement hindered. Couple of game points saved but the gap too big. Alyssa TIRTOSENTONO and Imke VAN DER AAR have taken the game 21-12.
Women’s doubles, IND vs NED: Pooja is struggling big time but she seems to have taken a call to carry on battling in this one. A huge lead for the Dutch pair in the opening game, 15-7
Women’s doubles, IND vs NED: The commentator saw this already during the match and he reckoned Pooja was having trouble. Fitness issues... she called for medical help but no treatment received. Indians trail 7-11.
Women’s doubles, IND vs NED: First match of the World Championships featuring Indians... Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh in women’s doubles against a Dutch pair.
5.01 pm: An impressive victory for the Russian pair of Anastasiia Akchurina and Olga Morozova in the women’s doubles round of 64. They defeat Germany’s Linda Efler and Isabel Lohau 19-21, 21-14, 21-12 in 79 minutes.
4.04 pm: Chou Tien Chen marches on. Easy win in the end, playing very much within himself. He will next run into Lu of China, who had beaten Vitidsarn earlier in the day.
3.31 pm: Easy win for Chang/Ng in the mixed doubles competition. Meanwhile, Chou Tien Chen’s match against Sitthikom Thammasin has begun on Court 2.
3.22 pm: Kristy Gilmour gets a very good win over Aya Ohori, who had looked in good touch during the Bali leg of the circuit. The world no 21 closed it out in straight games 21-19, 21-17 in 45 minutes. Very solid performance.
2.58 pm: Easy wins for Kosetskaya and Shi Feng Li. Controlled right from the start.
2.25 pm: The in-form Vitidsarn crashes out against China’s Lu, who put in a very disciplined performance to win 21-16, 21-12. The former World No 7 was in fine from right from the start against his Thai opponent and wrap up the win in 47 minutes.
2.21 pm: The first game was a cliffhanger but Ou and Feng found their rhythm after that to beat Nohr and Magelund 23-21, 21-14 in 36 minutes.
2.19 pm: Fine win for Matsui and Takeuchi over Greco and Strobl in the men’s doubles. They were never in trouble and closed out the match 21-12, 21-12 in 29 minutes.
2.03 pm: Lu takes the first game in some style. The Chinese player took the early lead and played a solid game. Vitidsarn had an encouraging second half but it remains to be seen whether drift played a part in this.
1.50 pm: Vitidsarn vs Lu Guang Zu to kick things off. A bit too good for the first round but that is how it goes in the World Championships. That’s on court 2. Three Indian matches on court 1 to finish the PM session.
(Screenshots courtesy Tournament Software and Disney+Hotstar