Badminton’s greatest show, the Yonex All England Championships 2019, began at Birmingham today. The tournament will feature a total of 155 matches. Premier Indian shuttler PV Sindhu was knocked out in the first round after she lost 16-21, 22-20, 18-21 to former World No.2, Sung Ji Hyun of South Korea. The marathon contest between fifth seed Sindhu and Sung lasted for an hour and 21 minutes.
Earlier in the day, HS Prannoy’s campaign ended on a disappointing note as he lost a closely fought contest 19-21, 19-21 to compatriot B Sai Praneeth in the first round.
The closely-contest match lasted for 52 minutes. The pair of Poorvisha Ram and Meghana Jakkampudi also got knocked in the opening game as they went down fighting 21-18,12-21,12-21 to the duo of Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova of Russia.
Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma are also in the men’s singles draw while Saina Nehwal is playing in women’s singles.
Featuring in the doubles are also the teams of – Manu Attri – Sumeeth Reddy, Ashwini Ponappa – N Sikki Reddy, and Pranaav Jerry Chopra – N Sikki Reddy.