All England Open 2023: Kidambi Srikanth enters pre-quaters

Kidambi Srikanth came from behind to script a stunning comeback win over Toma Junior Popov in the men's singles Round of 32 at the 2023 All England Open. Kidambi lost the first game 19-21 but made a quick comeback thereafter to win 21-14 and 21-5 and enter the pre-quarters on Wednesday.

Srikanth now leads Popov 2-1 on the BWF Tour. They previously met at the BWF World Tour Finals in 2021, with Srikanth winning 21-14, 21-16. Popov had won the first meeting between the two earlier that year, at the Orleans Masters.

Earlier in the day, PV Sindhu was eliminated from the All England Championships after losing in straight games to Zhang Yi Man of China in Birmingham. In the 39-minute women's singles match, World No. 9 Sindhu, a double Olympic medalist, lost 17-21,



11-21.

Sindhu has now been knocked out in the first round of three tournaments this year. She had lost to Carolina Marin of Spain in the Malaysia Open in January before withdrawing from the Indian Open at the same stage the following month.

She had recently parted ways with her coach, Korean Park Tae-sang, who had coached her to a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. PV Sindhu appeared rusty and subdued throughout the first-round match.

On the other hand, India's women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela stunned the seventh-seeded Thai duo of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 21-18, 21-14 in a 46-minute first round match. The Indian duo will meet the Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the pre-quarter-finals.