Badminton
All England Badminton: PV Sindhu knocked out, Treesa/Gayatri stun WR 8
PV Sindhu suffered a first-round exit at All England while Kidambi Srikanth, Treesa/Gayatri, and Satwik/Chirag moved to next round.
PV Sindhu in action at the India Open 2023. (PritishRaj/TheBridge)
World number 9 PV Sindhu's bad run continued as she made another shocking first-round exit against Zhang Yi Man of China in the All England Badminton Open.
Coming after a long layoff, this is the third first-round exit for Sindhu after Malaysia Open and India Open. This was her first appearance after parting ways with Korean coach Park Tae Sang.
Sindhu displayed her brilliance in flashes but the consistency required to win the match eluded her. She started with a lead of 6-5 and then made it 16-13. But the Chinese shuttler won seven straight points to lead 20-16 before taking the first game in 21 minutes by 21-17.
The second game was an easy affair for the Chinese shuttler as she cruised after being tied at 5-5 at the start. Sindhu committed a few unforced errors and was soon down 5-10.
Sindhu recovered a bit to trail 7-11 but was soon down 9-16 before losing the second game 21-11. Zhang handed a third straight first-round defeat on the World Tour this season to Sindhu.
Earlier during the day, India's women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela stunned seventh-seeded Thailand duo of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 21-18 21-14 in a 46-minute first-round match.
The ever-improving pair of Treesa and Gayatri registered their first-ever win against the seventh-seed Thai pair after losing to them four times in a row.
The duo of Treesa/Gayatri was in control of the tie from word go and didn't let the lead slip. After fighting it hard for the win in the first game by 21-18, the Indian pair dominated in the second game to register a famous win at All England.
The Indian duo will meet the Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the pre-quarterfinals.
In other results for India, Kidambi Srikanth came back from one game down to defeat French shuttler Toma Popov Junior 19-21, 21-14, 21-5 to continue the winning run for India in men's singles.
The returning pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won easily in the all-Indian clash against Vishnu Vardhan and Krishna Prasad by 21-13, 21-13 to start their first tournament with a win after an injury layoff of Satwik.
With the pair of M Arjun and Dhruv Kapila playing later, India has three singles players and two pairs in the pre-quarterfinals now.
