Srikanth avoids scare on BWF World Championships opening day
India's top-ranked men's player had to come from behind to win his match in Basel
Badminton
Seventh seed Srikanth Kidambi avoided a major scare on the opening day of the BWF World Championships as he rallied from a game down to beat Ireland's Nhat Nguyen in Basel on Monday.
The top-ranked Indian led 14-7 in the opening game but a series of errors allowed Nguyen to come back and take it 21-17.
Buoyed by that turnaround, Nguyen started the second game brightly but Kidambi fought back at the midway point.
Nerves then appeared to get the better of the Irishman as Kidambi took the second 21-16 before racing into an 11-1 lead in the decider.
That was too big a deficit for Nguyen to claw back with Kidambi winning through 17-21, 21-16, 21-6.
The 26-year-old now faces Israel's Misha Zilberman in the second round..
Wasteful play
Earlier in the day, B Sai Praneeth also had to tackle indifferent form to get past Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Shue.
In a match lasting 40 minutes, Praneeth was guilty of letting his opponent back into the tie on several occasions.
The 27-year-old led 17-7 in the opening game but Ho-Shue fought back before Praneeth, who was recommended for the Arjuna Award last week, eventually took it 21-17.
The second game was tight to start with but seven points in a row put the 16th seed into an 18-10 lead and he closed it out 21-17, 21-16.
He faces South Korea's Lee Dong Keun in round two on Tuesday.
Prannoy struggles
Unlike his two compatriots, HS Prannoy started off on the wrong foot against Eetu Heino.
The Finn won six consecutive points to go into an 8-5 lead and he consolidated to take the opening game 21-17.
But Prannoy was a different player after the interval, taking the next two games comfortably to prevail 17-21, 21-10, 21-11 and set up a second-round clash with five-time world champion Lin Dan.
Sameer Verma was the only Indian to bow out of the competition in the first round.
The 10th seed went down to Singapore's Loh Kean Yew 21-15, 15-21, 10-21.
India’s women’s doubles pair of J Meghana and Poorvisha Ram are safely through to the second round after beating Guatemala’s Diana Corleto Soto and Nikte Alejandra Sotomayor 21-10, 21-18.