Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and K Srikanth all had no trouble winning their first-round matches at the India Open BWF World Tour 500, but HS Prannoy was defeated by qualifier Shreyansh Jaiswal.
Prannoy lost 4-21, 6-21 after being on court for just 13 minutes. The 25-year-old was carrying a foot injury into the tournament. The 25-year-old tweeted after the match that he had a corn in his foot which had still not heeled.
The world No 10 decided to take part in the tournament as he had already missed two tournaments and did not want to miss another as the new Badminton World Federation rules make it mandatory for the top 15 singles players to play a minimum of 12 tournaments in a year.
Played because of BWF rules
Prannoy had even entered the Indonesia Masters last week and was seeded eighth, but withdrew before the tournament started. His last international tournament was the Hong Kong Open in November, where he lost in the round of 16.
“I just came because of the rule (BWF 12 tourney/year). I already missed two tournaments in the start. I couldn’t afford another one so early in the season,” he told reporters after the match in which he was even asked by the chair umpire why he was not giving his best in the match.
Explaining the injury, Prannoy said, “The procedure that my doctor did two weeks back was not proper. I did it in Hyderabad as it is a simple thing to remove a corn. But things did not go well for me.
“I am again doing a procedure tomorrow and it will take time to heal. So I am not sure when I can return. Probably, I can make it for the All England. But it all depends on how it heals.
“This is something very unexpected and is affecting me mentally. But what to do? We just need to accept certain things and move on,” he added.
When asked why he did not concede the match since it difficult for him to play, Prannoy said he would have not got any ranking points since he was playing against an Indian opponent. “Since I can’t concede to fellow countryman, I had to go ahead with the match.”
However, it is difficult to fathom this logic because Prannoy will have to play a minimum of 11 tournaments more and only the top-10 results are only considered for overall rankings.
Srikanth, Sai Praneeth advance
Earlier, Nehwal had it easy against Denmark’s Sofie Holmboe Dahl, needing 41 minutes to win 21-15, 21-9. Top seed Sindhu had it even easier against another Dane, Nathalia Koch Rohde, winning 21-10, 21-13 in 33 minutes.
Men’s second seed K Srikanth came through a 21-17, 21-18 winner against Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu. Eighth seed B Sai Praneeth had a tougher outing against England’s Rajiv Ouseph before eventually winning in three games, 21-11, 17-21, 21-17.
Over in the doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy were also stretched by the Indonesian pair of Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja and had to fight back from a game down to win 16-21, 21-17, 21-17.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa coasted through against Raju Mohamed Rehan and J Anees Kowsar 21-9, 21-10.
Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy had no trouble against qualifiers Adarsh Kumar and Jagadish Yadav, winning 21-7, 21-13.
Corrections and clarifications: This story has been updated with HS Prannoy’s tweet and quotes
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