India's top badminton player and World No 3 Saina Nehwal crashed out of the 2016 All England Open, going down in straight sets to Chinese Taipei's Tai T-y in the quarterfinals. This brought India's challenge at the tournament to an end, with Indian shuttlers knocked out previously.
Returning from an injury layoff, Nehwal powered her way through the first and second rounds but was unable to continue the same form in the quarterfinals, losing 15-21 16-21. India's other big hope in the female draw PV Sindhu fared worse, crashing out in the first round to P Buranaprasertsuk, 21-18 17-21 12-21.
In the men's draw, BS Praneeth pulled off a huge upset in the first round defeating second seeded Lee Chong Wei 24-22 22-20. However, he lost his second round encounter against Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-12 11-21 16-21. Another Indian qualifier Sameer Verma also progressed to the second round but lost to Tian Houwei 21-10 12-21 19-21.
Other Indian big names performed disappointingly with both Kidambi Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram getting eliminated in the first round.
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