Badminton World C'ship: Srikanth storms into second round

Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth eased into the second round of the ongoing Badminton World Championship following a convincing straight games victory over Nhat Nguyen of Ireland here at Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old thrashed his Irish opponent 21-15, 21-16 in a one-sided first-round clash that lasted 37 minutes.

Srikanth, who was facing the unseeded Irish player for the very first time, made everything look so easy as he did not break much sweat to get past Nguyen.

Making a strong start, the Indian shuttler took the initial lead of six points in the first game as his opponent made a series of unforced errors.

Nguyen, out of nowhere, came back strongly and gained back-to-back points to lead the opening game for the first time. The scoreline now read 15-14 in the favour of Irish player.

As the game started to tilt in favour of Nguyen, the Indian shuttler collected six back-to-back points to clinch the first game 21-15.

The second game looked more balanced as both the players were moving parallel to each other on the points table. Soon, Indian shuttler started to accelerate and at the break, it was 11-9 in favour of Srikanth.

Srikanth showed some stunning badminton moves on the court and collected six points in a row before eventually winning the second game 21-16.

The world number six Indian will now take on Pablo Abian from Spain in third round clash which will take place on August 1.

In the mixed doubles, Indian pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy suffered a major blow as they lost to Gloria Widjaja and Hafiz Faizal of Indonesia 16-21, 4-21 in their first round.

In the men's doubles event, Indian shuttlers Tarun Kona and Saurabh Sharma too slumped to defeat against Chin Chung and Chun Man Tang of China 20-22, 21-18, 17-21 in their opening clash of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will play her opening match of the tournament, later in the day.