Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand exacted revenge while PV Sindhu made another first round exit on the second day of the All England badminton championships in Birmingham on Wednesday.
Kidambi Srikanth recovered after losing the first game to beat Toma Junior Popov of France 19-21, 21-14, 21-5 in the men's singles first round.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated their practice partners Vishnuvardhan Goud and Krishna Prasad Garaga 21-13, 21-13 later in the day.
In the second round, Satwik-Chirag will face Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of China. There was a major upset in men's doubles as second seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia, potential quarterfinal opponents for the Indians, were knocked out.
Earlier, Treesa-Gayatri downed Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Pranjogjai of Thailand 21-18, 21-14 in the women's doubles first round. This is the first victory for the young Indian pair in five meetings against the Thai duo. The Indians will now face Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals.
Sindhu's woeful form continued as she lost to China's Zhang Yi Man 17-21, 11-21 in just 39 minutes. Incidentally, this was Sindhu's third first round loss after returning from a long injury layoff in January. Sindhu was the only Indian in fray in women's singles. The world No. 9 had lost to Carolina Marin in the first round of the Malaysian Open and Thai Supanida Katethong at the India Open. In Birmingham, Sindhu looked good till the 16th point in the first game before Zhang collected five of the last six points.
"It's sad to lose in the first round but it's time to go back and learn from my mistakes and try not to repeat them again. It's important to come back stronger. . . I'm completely fit physically but mentally it's going to take some time," said Sindhu, whose next outing will be at the Swiss Open beginning next week.
