Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth registered straight games victories over their respective opponents to advance to the second round of the All England badminton championship in Birmingham on Wednesday.
Nehwal defeated Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour 21-17, 21-18 in just 35 minutes while Srikanth needed five minutes less in packing off Frenchman Brice Leverdez 21-13, 21-11 on an otherwise forgettable day for the Indian contingent.
This was Nehwal’s seventh consecutive win over the Scottish girl and will now face Denmark’s Line Kjaersfeldt in the second round.
While Nehwal was clinical, Srikanth showed that he had prepared well for the BWF World Tour Super 1000 event as he took little time to find his rhythm against Leverdez. The former world number one, who had to save a match point at the same stage against the Frenchman last season, was hardly troubled by the conditions or the opponent as he set up a second round clash against Asian Games gold medallist Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.
Earlier, the day began with a shock defeat of fifth seed and pre-tournament favourite P V Sindhu against Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun despite saving eight match points while all the doubles pairs in fray were knocked out in the first round itself.
Women’s doubles combination of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy came within a point of upsetting seventh seeds Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto 16-21, 26-28, 21-16 in 77 minutes. The Indian pair saved seven game points in the second game and had a match point of their own but could not convert the same.
Sameer Verma then put up a strong fight against former world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark but ended losing 16-21, 21-18, 21-14 in an hour and five minutes.
The only win for India before Srikanth and Nehwal came to the party came through 2017 Singapore Superseries champion B Sai Praneeth who defeated compatriot HS Prannoy 21-19, 21-19.