While Kidambi Srikanth of India lost in straight games in the first round of the Syed Modi International badminton competition here on Wednesday, youthful Unnati Hooda upset fellow countryman Aakarshi Kashyap to go to the second round.
Former world no. 1 Srikanth, who finished second in the 2021 World Championships, fell to Korea’s Chia Hao Lee 21-23, 8-21, extending his terrible start to the international tour this year.
In a 77-minute Round of 32 match in the BWF Super 300 competition, Unnati, 16, who is regarded as one of the best players in women’s singles, battled her way to an incredible 15-21 21-19 21-18 victory over Kashyap.
Next up for the youthful shuttler from Rohtak is Nozomi Okuhara, a former world champion from Japan who won 18-21 21-17
In the women’s singles, Anupama Upadhyaya and Ashmita Chaliha also made advances.
In one match, Ashmita defeated Polina Buhrova of Ukraine 21-15 21-15, while Anupama defeated Amalie Schulz of Denmark 14-21 21-15 21-9.
Men’s singles champions Priyanshu Rajawat of the Orleans Masters, Kiran George of the Denmark Masters, and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran advanced to the second round with impressive wins.
Dmitriy Panarin of Kazakhstan was defeated by Priyanshu 21-17 21-19, while Kiran defeated Chirag Sen, the brother of Lakshya Sen, 21-16 14-21 21-13, and Sathish defeated Huang Yu Kai of Chinese Taipei.
While Kiran takes on Chia, Priyanshu will compete against Sathish in an all-Indian match.
However, Sameer Verma lost badly versus Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei, 9-21 21-17 17-21.
In the opening round of doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto defeated fellow countrymen Samriddhi Singh and Sonali Singh 21-8 21-9.
In the round of 16, they will play Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda, another all-Indian duo.
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