Indian badminton star PV Sindhu made a confident start at the All England Open, beating American Beiwin Zhang in straight games, but Kidambi Srikanth bowed out with a first round defeat on Wednesday, 11 March.
Meanwhile, curtains went down for former world no.1 Saina Nehwal as she went down in straight games against Akane Yamaguchi. Her All England campaign ended in the 1st round as the score stood at 11-21, 8-21 in just 28 minutes.
In his All England debut, Lakshya Sen pulled off a brilliant come-from-behind win against Lee Cheuk Yiu.
The sixth seed and world number six Sindhu got the better of the American, ranked eight places below her, 21-14 21-17 in 42 minutes.
The second game was a close affair with the two players locked at 16-16. Sindhu, however, won five points in a row after it became 17-all to clinch the issue.
It was the 10th meeting between the two players with Sindhu improving the head-to-head record to 6-4. The last time they met was at the Korea Open where the American won in three sets.
However, in the men's singles, Srikanth lost in straight games to the Chinese world number five.
The Indian lost 15-21 16-21 in 43 minutes.
Sindhu will next clash with Korean Sung Ji Hyun for a place in the quarterfinals.
Saina Nehwal and P Kashyap are also scheduled to play later Wednesday along with young Lakshya Sen and B Sai Praneeth.
Saina is up against third seeded Japanese Akane Yamaguchi.
In the women's doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy will open their campaign against the British pair of Jenny Moore and Victoria Williams.
Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost 13-21, 21-11, 17-21 to top-seeded Chinese pair of Si Wei Zheng and Ya Qiong Huang.
(With inputs from IANS)
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