Praneeth beats Lee; Saina, Srikanth advance

The Malaysian second seed was beaten 24-22 2220, which ended a promising few months where he had won his last four events. “I can’t believe I lost in the first round,” Lee said. “I had pressure to win but I made mistakes and I’m shocked at how well he played. 

This is a real learning curve for me.” Besides, ace Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma too entered the second round of the USD 550,000 tournament at the Barclaycard Arena here. World No. 2 Saina, who is making a comeback after a long injury lay-off, dispatched Commonwealth Games champion Michelle Li of Canada 21-17 21-12 to set up a clash with Thailand’s Busanan Ongbumrungphan. 

Srikanth too showed the door to England’s Rajiv Ouseph 21-17 21-12. The Guntur lad will meet Japan’s Kento Momota, seeded fourth, here. Young Sameer also dished out a superb performance as he dismantled Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-10 21-14 in another men’s singles match and will meet Chinese eight seed Tian Houwei next. 

For two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, P V Sindhu, it turned out to be yet another disappointing tournament as she lost 21-18 17-21 12-21 to Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand.