Saina enters quarterfinals, keeps Indian title hopes alive
Ace Indian player Saina Nehwal, eased into the quarterfinals of the All England Open Championships, with a 21-16, 21-9 win over Thailand's Busanan Ongbumrungphan in the second round. The World No. 2 was making a comeback after a long injury lay-off. Meanwhile, P V Sindhu in yet another disappointing loss went down 21-18, 17-21, 12-21 to Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand.
The All England Open Badminton Championships, or simply All England, is the world's oldest and most prestigious badminton tournament. Played annually, it developed after the success of the world's first open tournament held in Guildford in 1898. It was considered the unofficial world championship until 1977, when International Badminton Federation launched its official championships. The tournament was halted twice, during both the World Wars.
The only Indian badminton players to have won the All England Open Championship so far are Prakash Padukone in 1980 and Pullela Gopichand in 2001.
The All England championships is a Super Series Premier event, as part of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Super Series. The event was scheduled to be played from March 8-13, 2016 and offers a total prize money of $550,000. The defending champions of the tournament are Chen Long from China (Men's Singles) and Carolina Marin from Spain (Women's Singles).
BWF Super Series features twelve tournaments around the world, five of which are classified as Super Series Premier. Top eight players/pairs in each discipline in Super Series Standing are invited to the Super Series Masters Finals held at the year end.
Indian players failed to cross the opening hurdle at the All England Championships in Birmingham. Ajay Jayaram and HS Prannoy lost the first round of their matches to Hong Kong's Ka Long Angus (18-21, 21-19, 19-21) and China' s Xue Song (20-22, 15-21), respectively. 2010 Commonwealth Games champions, doubles players Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa lost early 24-26, 17-21 to Samantha Barning/Iris Tabeling.
Three-time champion Lee Chong Wei was sensationally beaten by India's young shuttler Sai Praneeth in the first round of the All-England Open Championships. The World No. 2 Malaysian legend who was on a hot streak of four tournament victories, was beaten 24-22, 22-20. "I had pressure to win but I made mistakes and I'm shocked at how well he (Praneeth) played," Lee said.
Indian players Kidambi Srikanth, Sameer Verma and Sai Praneeth got knocked out of their respective second round matches. The tournament now has no Indian players left in Men's Singles, Women's & Men's Doubles and Mixed Doubles.
