All England Open: PV Sindhu storms into 2nd round, HS Prannoy suffers 1st-round exit

It was a mixed start to India's campaign in the All England Open badminton championship as two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu stormed into the women's singles second round. On the other hand, top-ranked Indian men's singles player, HS Prannoy, was shown the door in the opening round along with women's singles shuttler Akarshi Kashyap in Birmingham on Tuesday, March 12.

Later in the day, former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth also suffered a first-round exit, losing to Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen. Srikanth suffered a tame loss as he went down 9-21, 9-21, in just 33



minutes.

Sindhu, who showed glimpses of return to form in Paris last week, progressed to the second round without breaking a sweat as her first-round opponent Li Yvonne of Germany retired hurt after losing the opening game 10-21. Sindhu spent very little time on the court on Tuesday.

Sindhu is all set to face a stiff challenge in the second round as she is likely to take on World No. 1 An Se Young of Korea. Sindhu has met An 6 times on the tour and has not managed to beat the top-ranked shuttler even once. An will face Taipei's Wen Chi Hsu in her first-round match on Wednesday.