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It was alreadty a disappointing day for Indian badminton on Day 1 of the All-England Badminton Championships with Parupalli Kashyap, K.Srikanth and Tarun Kona/Ashwini Ponappa , all losing their first round encounters.
It was dealt another major blow when, 2013 World Championships bronze medalist PV Sindhu, also faltered in the opening round.
Saina Nehwal was the lone winner on the day as she outclassed her opponent in a completely one sided match.
World No. 7 and Olympic Bronze medalist Saina Nehwal thrashed Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the first round of USD 400,000 Yonex All-England Badminton Championships.
Saina, who lost in the semifinal of this tournament a year ago, defeated the World No. 20 Scottish shuttler 21-15, 21-6 in a match that lasted just 32 minutes.
The 23-year-old Indian shuttler started the match with a bang as she took a strong four-point lead in the initial part of the first game. Trailing 16-10, Gilmour made a good comeback as she grabbed the next four points in a row to shorten the lead but Saina was in no mood to make the game any more interesting as she reeled of four points in quick succession to pocket the first game 21-15.
The second game was a completely one-sided affair as Saina didn’t give her opponent even a single chance to come close.From 2-2, Saina won the next eight points in a row to take a healthy lead of 10-2.
This lead proved to be very crucial for the experienced Indian shuttler as she managed to hold on to it till the end and won the game with ease by a score of 21-6.
Saina, who recently won the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold tournament, will now take on the World No. 41 Malaysian ace Beiwen Zhang for a place in the quarter-finals. Beiwen got a walkover from the German shuttler Juliane Schenk in the first round.
Indian teenage badminton sensation and World No. 9 P.V Sindhu lost 16-21, 15-21 to World No. 32 Chinese shuttler Yu Sun in a 47 minute match.
Sindhu, who had a win-loss record of 2-1 against the lower ranked Chinese player, was not at her best in this game as Sun totally outplayed the Indian shuttler in almost all aspects of the game.
Sindhu, started the opening game on a bad note as she trailed 5-9 in the first game. She however clawed her way back at 15-15 but then again Sun showed her dominance and reeled off five points in quick succession to wrap up the opening game 16-21.
Story was more or less the same in the next game as after 14-13, the Chinese shuttler took next four points to further increase her lead and then quickly won the remaining points to draw the curtains on the Indian shuttler’s challenge.
