The experienced Kidambi Srikanth, on Wednesday, crashed out of men’s singles opening round at the 2023 Syed Modi India International Challenge in Lucknow.
The former world No 1 went down 21-23, 8-21 to a lower-ranked Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei. This is Srikanth’s fourth consecutive first-round exit in the World Tour circuit.
The 30-year-old had previously lost in the opening round of the Denmark Open Super 750, French Open Super 750, and the China Masters Super 750, which was held last week. Srikanth’s last win at the BWF World Tour came at the Arctic Open Super 500 in Finland, where he bowed out in the second round.
On the other hand, the young Unnati Hooda in women’s singles and Priyanshu Rajawat in men’s singles won their respective matches to advance to the Round of 16.
Up against fellow Indian Aakarshi Kashyap, Hooda came back from a game down to win 15-21, 21-19, 21-18 in a hard-fought battle whereas Rajawat cruised to the pre-quarterfinals with a 21-17, 21-19 win over Dimitry Panarin.
Kiran George also moved into the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals with a hard fought 21-16, 14-21, 21-13 win against Chirag Sen. The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto made quick work of Samriddhi Singh and Sonali Singh 21-8, 21-9 to advance.
Besides, Anupama Upadhyay and Ashmita Chaliha in women’s singles, Sathish Karunakaran in men’s singles, the men’s doubles pair of Ayush Makhija/Gaurav Venkat Prasad, women’s doubles pairs of Simran Singhi/Ritika Thaker, Swetaparna/Rutaparna Panda, Dhanyaa Nandakumar/Ridhi Toor and the mixed doubles pair of Nitin Kumar/Navdha Manglam have also advanced to the Round of 16.
Malvika loses to Okuhara
Meanwhile, the young Malvika Bansod lost 21-18, 17-21, 10-21 to former world champion Nozomi Okuhara, after being a game up in the contest.
Also out of contention from the tournament are Sameer Verma, Meiraba Maisnam and Sankar Muthusamy in men’s singles, Tanya Hemanth and Keyura Mopati in women’s singles, the women’s doubles pairs of Shrishti Gupta/Saumya Singh, Gayathri Rani/Sania Sikkandar, Ishu/Tanu Malik, Hooda/Palak Arora, Priya Konjengbam/Shruti Mishra, men’s doubles pair of Pratik Ranade/Zhakuo Seiye, and mixed doubles pair of Shivam Sharma/Poorvisha Ram.
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