BREAKING: Saina Nehwal tested positive for coronavirus at Thailand Open

India's ace badminton player Saina Nehwal has been tested positive for COVID-19. Her reports during the third COVID test turned positive, while she was preparing for her opening game at the Thailand Open. Alongside Saina, HS Prannoy's report has also come positive.

On Tuesday morning, Saina was supposed to play her opening match against Kisona Selvaduray. With the former withdrawing, Selvaduray moved into the second round. Saina's husband Parupalli Kashyap has been forced to withdraw from the event. Kashyap was scheduled to play Jason Anthony Ho-Shue of Canada later on Tuesday.

Kashyap has been taken to hospital for another round of testing since he was in close proximity with Saina. His test report is awaited but the organisers are assuming that he, too, would possibly test positive.

All these results are only orally declared and the Indian team is yet to get the reports. As per the rules in Thailand, Saina and Prannoy will be put up in a hospital for 10 days.

For Prannoy, this was his third round of testing in which he came positive.

However, the rest of the Indian squad apart from these players has been allowed to compete in the tournament.

This is the second time that Saina and Prannoy had tested positive. Last month along with Kashyap these players tested positive during Gurusaidutt's wedding. All of them served quarantine period and tested negative before arriving in Bangkok. Even in Bangkok they returned negative on arrival.

Indian campaign was off to a winning start in Thailand Open with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa registering a 21-11, 27-29, 21-16 victory against Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Widjaja of Indonesia.