Praneeth falters in BWF World Championships, Srikanth moves forward

Some Indian doubles pairs also crashed out of the tournament.

B. Sai Praneeth suffered a surprising first round exit from the BWF World Championships 2021. The Indian shuttler fell to Dutchman Mark Caljouw in his opening match of the men’s singles category.

Praneeth started the match relatively strongly, outwitting the World No. 25 in the first game. He ended up winning the first game by 21-17, taking control of the match. However, Caljouw bounced back after that.

The Dutch shuttler dominated the second game and won it quickly by the margin of 21-7. That seemed to shatter Praneeth’s confidence, as he lost his momentum. Caljouw sealed the final game to win the match 17-21, 21-7, 21-18 to move into the second round of the BWF World Championships.

Srikanth storms into next round

Despite Praneeth’s disappointment, his fellow Indian singles partner Kidambi Srikanth had no problem in his opening match in the BWF World Championships. He saw off the threat of Spanish shuttler Pablo Abian in a swift fashion.

Srikanth played on the front foot from the get-go and didn’t let Abian’s home-field advantage come into play at any point. The Indian shuttler dominated the first game, winning it swiftly by the margin of 21-12.

Abian started to mount a comeback in the second game before Srikanth put that to bed. He fought hard to win key points and slowly edged to win the match in straight games 21-12, 21-16 to move onto the second round. He will now face Chinese shuttler Li Shifeng in the BWF World Championships.

Disappointment for doubles’ pair

In both the Women’s and Men’s doubles categories, luck just wasn’t on India’s side on the day. The female pair of Sanjana Santosh and Pooja Dandu couldn’t even fully finish their first-round game against Dutch pair Alyssa Tirtosentono and Imke Van der Aar.

The Dutch women started the match in dominant fashion, putting the Indian shuttlers to work. They won the first game by the margin of 21-12 to take control of the match. However, the Indian pair couldn’t continue, after Dandu picked up an injury, meaning she couldn’t compete anymore in the BWF World Championships.

Santosh and Dandu had to forfeit the game, handing the win to the Dutch pair. In the Men’s Doubles’ first-round clash, B. Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri suffered a similar fate against Danish pair Ramus Kjaer and Joel Eipe – minus the forfeit bit.

Reddy and Attri put up a strong fight but just weren’t able to overpower the disciplined Dutch duo. Kjaer and Eipe won the match in straight games 21-16, 21-15, knocking out the Indian pair in the first round.

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