Forced to take the court despite developing foot corns, H S Prannoy lost in the opening round even as compatriots Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu entered the second round of the USD 350,000 India Open badminton tournament, on Wednesday. Prannoy looked uncomfortable as he took the court against compatriot Shreyansh Jaiswal and handed over the match to his younger colleague 4-21 6-21. (Read | Badminton World Federation to review its crammed calendar in May)In women’s singles, Indonesia Masters finalist Saina had to work hard in the opening game to get across Denmark’s Sofie Holmboe Dahl 21-15 21-9, while defending champion Sindhu dumped another Danish girl Natalia Koch Rohde 21-10 21-13. Saina will face Denmark’s Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt, while Sindhu will take on either India’s Vaidehi Choudhari or Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri next. “I had to participate in the India Open because of the new BWF rule of mandatory 12 tournaments.

Source: Hindustan Times January 31, 2018 09:56 UTC