Shuttlers Sindhu, Prannoy advance in All England

P.V. Sindhu and H.S. Prannoy advanced to the second round of the All England Open Badminton Championships which began at the Barclaycard Arena here on Wednesday.

Sixth seed Sindhu eased past Danish Mette Poulsen with a 21-10, 21-11 victory in 29 minutes. In the second round, the Indian will meet Indonesian Dinar Dyah Ayustine, who moved past Danish qualifier Natalia Koch Rohde 21-19, 22-20.

Prannoy defeated China's Qiao Bin 17-21, 22-20, 21-19 in an excruciating men's singles match that lasted an hour and 22 minutes.

India, however, fared badly in the doubles competitions. In the men's doubles category, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy suffered a first-round exit at the hands of qualifiers Peter Briggs and Tom Wolfenden, who won 21-19, 10-21, 21-18 in 47 minutes.

There was also a huge upset in this category, with Danish second seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen being stunned by Lu Kai and Zheng Siwei of China.

The women's doubles pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S. Ram lost to Chinese Taipei's Hsu Ya Ching and Wu Ti Jung 19-21, 12-21 in 31 minutes.

Eighth seed Saina Nehwal will meet World No.11 and defending champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the first round later in the day.

--IANS

pur/vt