Saina Nehwal advances in All England Badminton Championship, Parupalli Kashyap loses

Saina Nehwal began her All England Badminton Championship campaign with a comfortable win over Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour. But India’s top male players, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth, lost their opening round matches.

World No 7 Saina sailed past 20th ranked Gilmour 21-15, 21-6 in 32 minutes at the National Indoor Arena. The Hyderabadbased player next faces American qualifier Beiwen Zhang, who got a walkover from Germany’s World No.11 Juliane Schenk.

However, the second Indian in the women’s singles draw, PV Sindhu, lost to Sun Yu of China 16-21 15-21.

World No.19 Kashyap endured a tough loss against fifth ranked Kenichi Tago of Japan. Tago pipped the Indian 14-21, 21-19, 21-17 in a 75-minute battle. World No 21 Srikanth also failed to advance, losing 11-21, 15-21 to 15th-ranked Kento Memota of Japan.

Earlier, Malaysia’s world number one Lee Chong Wei cruised through the first round while his main rivals struggled. Lee, a silver medallist at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, played within himself to dispose of Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-15 21-17 and book his place in the second round.

While Lee was cruising, world number three Tommy Sugiarto was dumped out of the tournament by China’s Gao Huan. Gao took the first game 21-13 but Sugiarto smashed through the second 21-10.

Another of Lee’s main rivals, Chen Long, also looked in danger of an early exit when he lost his first game 21-10 to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, but managed avoid defeat.