Sindhu, Srikanth and Lakshya to headline India Open 2022
Other Sports | December 20, 2021 19:07 ISTAlso headlining the tournament will be newly-crowned world champion Loh Kean Yew along.
Also headlining the tournament will be newly-crowned world champion Loh Kean Yew along.
Even before his 15-21, 20-22 loss to Singapore's Loh Kean Yew in the men's singles final, the 28-year-old's silver medal made him the first-ever Indian man to achieve the feat at the marquee tournament.
This is the first time that a men's player from Singapore has won gold at the BWF World Championships.
Srikanth saw off compatriot Sen 17-21, 21-14, 21-17 in a thrilling semi-final that lasted an hour and nine minutes.
Srikanth, seeded 12th in the showpiece tournament, sent Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands packing with a 21-8 21-7 in a quarterfinal match that lasted just 26 minutes.
India's two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu will look to bring her best to the fore on the big stage when she begins her title defence at the BWF World Championships beginning here on Sunday.
Sindhu finished in the second position in group A, behind Chochuwong and her opponent of the semifinal stage will be decided in a draw later in the day.
The former world no. 1 Indian was no match for Lee, the reigning All England champion, going down 19-21 14-21 in 37 minutes to end his campaign.
Double Olympic medallist Sindhu outplayed World No 23 Yvonne Li 21-10, 21-13 in 31 minutes.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy suffered their second successive loss in the event, going down fighting 19-21 20-22 to Bulgaria's Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva
Srikanth beat France's Toma Junior Popov 21-14, 21-16 in 42 minutes in his opening match of group B.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu hardly broke a sweat to win the second round clash 21-12 21-18 against world No. 26 Germany's Yvonne Li in 37 minutes at the USD 850,000 event.
Playing on Court 2, former world number one Kidambi beat the 2014 Indonesia Masters champion Prannoy by 21-7, 21-18 in a 39-minute encounter.
While Srikanth staved off a stiff challenge from World No 71 Christo Popov 21-18, 15-21, 21-16, former world no 10 Prannoy saw off Malaysia's Liew Daren 22-20, 21-19 in the opening round.
Srikanth, who had claimed the title in 2017, outsmarted compatriot B Sai Praneeth 21-14 21-11 in 30 minutes.
Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma won their respective singles match in straight games; doubles pairs Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila won their tie with little discomfort.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) also nominated HS Prannoy, Pranav Jerry Chopra and Sameer Verma for the Arjuna Awards.
Former world no 1 Srikanth and London Games bronze-medallist Saina's hopes were all but dashed when the last of the Olympic qualifiers in Singapore was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tournament organisers Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) and Badminton World Federation (BWF) jointly agreed to cancel the Singapore Open scheduled for June 1-6.
The decision came as a huge setback for London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina and men's star Srikanth's last hopes of Olympic qualification.
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