All England Championships: Saina Nehwal easily beat Kirsty Gilmour in straight games (Reuters Photo)
HIGHLIGHTS
- Saina Nehwal esily beat Kirsty Gilmour 21-17, 21-18
- Sameer Verma lost to Viktor Axelsen 21-16, 18-21, 14-21
- Kidmabi Srikanth won his match as PV Sindhu crashed out
Saina Nehwal beat Kirsty Gilmour in straight games but Sameer Verma's challenge came to end at the All England Championships, after losing to Viktor Axelsen in Birmingham on Wednesday.
Nehwal, who is World Number 9, easily defeated her opponent form Scotland with a 21-17, 21-18 victory in the first round of the women's singles to qualify for the next round.
"I really enjoy a lot, it is something every player looks up to. The challenge is even more tough than regular Super Series events as everyone wants to have the trophy. You have to play your natural game to be the best and can't really put the pressure on yourself, 'that you have to have it'. If it is in your destiny then you will get it. The challenge is to give your and beat the best players," Saina said after the match.
Nehwal will meet Denmark's Line Kjaersfeldt in the second round on Thursday.
Always great to see @NSaina at the All England
Catch her reaction after a hard-fought contest with Scotland's @KirstyGilmourr in a match where both players gave their all#YAE19 #allengland19
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Sameer, on the other hand, gave a tough fight to Axelsen but went down 21-16, 18-21, 14-21.
Earlier, India other star shuttler PV Sindhu crashed out following a hard fought defeat to Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea in the first round of the women's singles
Sindhu went down 16-21, 22-20, 18-21 in an hour and 20 minutes.
"There were too many points for me to cover and it was a good game overall. Maybe I should have controlled much more. It was just my bad luck and it was just not my day because my mid-court smashes were just going to the net. Overall, she played well," Sindhu said after the match.
B Sai Praneeth advanced beat compatriot H.S. Prannoy 21-19, 21-19 to progress to the second round of the men's singles. Kidambi Srikanth also navigated the first round hurdle with a 21-13, 21-11 against France's Brice Leverdez.
In women's doubles, the pair of Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha Ram qualoified for the second round with a 18-21, 21-12, 21-12 win over the Russian pair of Ekaterina Bolotova and Alina Davletova. While, the more experienced Indian women's doubles combination of Ashwini Ponappa and N. Sikki Reddy went down 21-16, 26-28, 16-21 to the world No.7 Japanese pair of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto in an hour and 17 minutes.
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