Former world No.1 Saina Nehwal suffered a shock loss against Phittayaporn Chaiwan of Thailand in the first round of the Swiss Open BWF Super-300 tournament in Basel on Wednesday.
The world No.19 Indian tried hard before going down to the world No.31 in three games 16-21, 21-17, 21-23.
Meanwhile, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Ajay Jayaram, Sai Praneeth, Sourabh Verma and the men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy won their first round matches. However, HS Prannoy lost 19-21, 21-9, 17-21 to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands. A little while later, Lakshya Sen lost to Victor Svendsen of Denmark 16-21, 21-12.
Parupalli Kashyap also exited the tournament with a 15-21, 10-21 loss against Pablo Abian of Spain.
While Sindhu defeated Neslihan Yigit of Turkey 21-16, 21-19, Srikanth recovered after losing the first game to beat his practice partner Sameer Verma 18-21, 21-18, 21-11. Srikanth will face Thomas Rouxel of France in the second round on Thursday. Second seed Sindhu will face world No.40 Iris Wang of USA in the second round.
Sourabh Verma had an easy 21-19, 21-18 victory against qualifier Christian Kirchmayr of Switzerland. He will face three-time world junior champion Kunlavut Vitidsarin of Thailand in the pre-quarterfinals.
Ajay Jayaram ousted Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand. The Mumbai shuttler will square up against third seed Rasmus Gemke of Denmark.
Meanwhile, second seeds Satwik and Chirag suffered a minor scare against Grimley twins – Matthew and Christopher. The world No.10 Indians overcame a mid-match slump before prevailing over the world No.62 pair from Scotland 21-18, 19-21, 21-16.
The Indians dominated the Scots in the third. They secured an early lead of 6-2 and gave no chance to their opponents. In the second round they will play unseeded Indonesians Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan.
In the women’s doubles Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy survived some anxious moments towards the end of the second game before defeating Annabella Jaeger and Stine Kuspert of Germany 21-5, 21-19.
Indian results:
Men’s singles (Rd I): 4-Kidambi Srikanth bt Sameer Verma 18-21, 21-18, 21-11; Sourabh Verma bt Chirstian Kirchmayr (Sui) 21-19, 21-18; Mark Caljouw (Ned) bt HS Prannoy 21-19, 9-21, 21-17; 5-Sai Praneeth bt Misha Zilberman (Isr) 21-11, 21-14; Ajay Jayaram bt Sitthikom Thammasin (Tha) 21-12, 21-13; Lakshya Sen lost to Victor Svendsen (Den) 16-21, 12-21; Pablo Abian (ESP) bt Parupalli Kashyap 21-15, 21-10.
Women’s singles: PV Sindhu bt Neslihan Yigit (Tur) 21-16, 21-19; Phittayaporn Chaiwan bt Saina Nehwal 16-21, 21-17, 21-23.
Men’s doubles: 2-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty bt Christopher Grimley/Matthew Grimley (Sco) 21-18, 19-21, 21-16; 7-Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov (Rus) bt MR Arjun Dhruv Kapila 21-16, 21-18.
Women’s doubles: Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki Reddy bt Annabella Jaeger/Stine Kuspert (Ger) 21-5, 21-19.