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New Delhi: PV Sindhu crashed to an opening round loss while Kidambi Srikanth moved to the second round of the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament on Wednesday.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu lost 22-20, 12-21, 15-21 to Vietnam's Thuy Linh Nguyen in 68 minutes, former World No. 1 Srikanth won 15-21, 21-6, 21-19 against Tharun Mannepalli.
HS Prannoy defeated last year's runner-up Lee Cheuk Yiu 22-20 21-18 to set up a meeting with eighth seed and former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.
Malvika Bansod made a winning start on return from injury as she won 21-18, 21-19 against Chinese Taipei's Pai Yu Po.
Women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand beat Thailand's Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sukitta Suwachai 21-15, 21-11 and take on seventh seeds Li Yi Jing and Luo Xu Min of China next.
Three Indian pairs were knocked out in the first round in mixed doubles as Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto lost 15-21, 14-21 to Thailand's Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde went down 19-21, 14-21 to Germany's Marvin Seidel and Thuc Phuong Nguyen.
Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh slumped 15-21, 7-21 to Japan's Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara.
Amid criticism of playing conditions at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, Srikanth said he didn't find anything unacceptable at the venue.
"I don't know, see every country has its own conditions. In Singapore, there is a lot of drift. In Malaysia, probably a little less. Earlier in Indonesia, it used to be very compact and fast before renovation. Every country has its own challenge," he said.
"In 2016 or 2017, I had to wait for about an hour in between my match in Denmark because the light went out," he disclosed, also speaking of an instance involving HS Prannoy.
"Prannoy was just telling me, he had to play his match the following day. He played one set first day and then the second set on the following day," he said.
"So, these things do happen, just that nobody does it deliberately. Every country wants to do it really well. So, these things do happen very rarely, I don't know why everyone's complaining about it."
