Sindhu crashes out in the first round of All England Open
Sindhu crashes out in the first round of All England Open: Jolly-Gayathri shocks 7th seed pair after 3rd straight tournament exit this year
Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu crashed out of the All England Championship 2023 tournament after losing in the first round on Wednesday. On the other hand, on the second day of the championship, the Indian women's pair caused a big upset. Tressa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela defeated 7th-seeded pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
World No. 9 Sindhu went down in straight games 17-21, 11-21 to China's Zhang Yi Man in women's singles. There was an equal fight between the two, but in the end, the Chinese player won. Sindhu has been out of the first round of the tournament for the third time in a row this year. Earlier, she had exited in the first round of the Malaysia Open and India Open played in January this year. On the other hand, the pair of Jolly and Gayatri defeated Kititharakul and Prajongjai 21-18, 21-14.
With this win, Zhang improved her win-loss record against Sindhu to 2-1. The match between Sindhu and Zhang is tied at 1-1. The last meeting between these two players took place in Malaysia in 2022, which Sindhu won in straight games. Earlier, Zhang had defeated Sindhu in 2022.
HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen stormed into the second round of the All England Open Badminton Championships on Day 1 after winning the first round. HS Prannoy defeated Wang Tzu-Wei of Taiwan. In this match played on Tuesday, the Indian shuttler made it to the second round by winning two consecutive games 21-19 and 22-20. At the same time, Lakshya Sen also broke his hopes of reaching the next round by defeating Chou Tien-Chen of Taiwan. Sen won the match 21-18, 21-19.
From the Indian side, so far Indian players have won only twice in this tournament. India has been hoping for the title for 22 years. The last time this title was won was by Phulela Gopichand in 2001. Before Gopichand, it was won by Prakash Padukone for the first time in the year 1980. Although PV Sindhu reached the finals of the tournament in the year 2015 and Lakshya Sen in the year 2022, could not win.
