Indian Shuttler Kidambi Srikanth entered 2nd round of All England Open Badminton Championships at Birmingham

Indian Shuttler Kidambi Srikanth entered the second round of the All England Open Badminton Championships at Birmingham. 

Former World Number one Srikanth defeated World Number 25 Toma Junior Popov of France 19-21, 21-14, 21-5 in the opening round of Men's Singles.

Earlier, India’s Women’s and Men's Doubles pairs also advanced into the next round of the tournament after winning their respective first-round matches.

The Women’s Doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela stunned seventh-seeded Thailand duo of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 21-18, 21-14 in the first-round match. They will meet the Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the next round.

In Men's Doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and his team partner Chirag Shetty sailed into the second round after getting better of compatriots Krishna Prasad and Vishnuvardhan, 21-13, 21-13.

However, Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu made a first-round exit from the tournament after losing to Zhang Yi Man of China in straight games in Women’s Singles. The world number nine Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist, lost 17-21, 11-21 in the 39-minute contest.

Yesterday, India’s HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen also registered dominating victories to enter the second round of the Men’s Singles event.