BIRMINGHAM: India’s ace shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap suffered early exits in the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships, losing their respective opening round men’s singles matches on Wednesday.
However, the Indian duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy got the better of Thailand’s Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard in straight games, 21-14 21-12, in a women’s doubles match that lasted 30 minutes.
Seeded eight, Srikanth lost to Ireland’s unseeded player Nguyen Nhat 11-21, 21-15, 12-21 on the opening day of the tournament.
His match lasted exactly an hour as the player from Ireland came back strongly after losing the second game against the Indian.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kashyap went down in straight games to top seeded Japanese Kento Momota 13-21, 20-22 in 42 minutes.