BWF World Championships | Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and Sai Praneeth register wins

Nehwal began her 2018 BWF World Championship with a convincing win in straight sets against Aliye Demirbag of Turkey by a score of 21-17, 21-8. The match lasted for 36 minutes before the Turkish succumbed towards the end. Nehwal had received a bye in the opening round and hence will play Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the third round.

Meanwhile, Indian men’s singles players Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth also progressed to round two at China. While Srikanth registered a daunting straight sets win against the unseeded opponent, Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen 21-15, 21-16 in 37 minutes, Praneeth received a walk-over from fourth seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea. 

But it was the end of the tournament for men’s doubles pair of Tarun Kona and Saurabh Sharma who went down fighting against Hong Kong’s Chin Chung and Tang Chun Man 20-22, 21-18, 17-21. Another Indian duo to bow out from the competition was that of Arjun M.R. and Ramachandran Shlok, who suffered a defeat in straight games against Malaysian One Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 14-21, 15-21 in a match that went on for 29 minutes.

In the mixed doubles category, Indian doubles pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa carried on their stunning form from round one as they staged a fantastic comeback in their round-two match. After they lost the opening game 10-21, they bounced back to win the next two games 21-17, 21-18 and ultimately secured a berth in round three in China. But it was the end of the line for Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy as they lost to Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Widjaja of Indonesia by a score of 16-21, 4-21.

Sixth-seeded British pair of Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock knocked out Russian Open semi-finalists Kuhoo Garg and Rohan Kapoor in straight sets by an identical scoreline of 21-12, 21-12 in across both games. 

Amongst the women’s doubles, Indian pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and S Ram Poorvisha were also defeated in the first round at the hands of Dutch duo of Debora Jille and Imke Van Der Aar. The Indians put up a tough fight as they went down by a score of 21-1, 19-21, 21-18 in a match that went on for almost an hour.