BWF World Championships: Ponnappa-Sikki crash out of competition in round-of-32

The Indian duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Reddy N. Sikki crashed out of the ongoing BWF World Championships 2022 after losing in their second-round match in the women’s doubles category against China’s Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan on Wednesday.

Playing on court 1, Ponnappa and Sikki lost the game by 15-21, 10-21. The Indian duo looked off-colour and could not match the intensity and shot-making by the Chinese. The result was a crash-out within just two straight games.

In another women’s doubles match on court 3, the Indians faced disappointment once again as duo of Pooja Santosh and Sanjana Dandu succumbed to a defeat to the South Korean duo of Lee So-hee and Shin Seung Chan.

Like the previous match, the Indians endured a humiliating loss in straight two games and lost the match by 15-21, 7-21.

Later today, stars like Kidambi Srikanth, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, Kidambi Srikanth, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, Prannoy HS, Lakshya Sen will be in action.

Earlier on Tuesday, London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal made a winning start to her campaign at the ongoing BWF World Championships 2022, beating Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong in straight games on in her first-round match in the women’s singles category by 21-19, 21-9.

Also, Indian players won two of five doubles matches on Tuesday at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships.

Both the wins came in the women’s doubles matches with the pairs of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela and of Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam winning their matches.

Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam secured an easy win over their Italian opponents in straight sets 21-8, 21-14. With this win, the pair advanced to the round of 32.

Earlier in the day, the Indian duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela made a winning start to their campaign and defeated the Malaysian duo of Low Yeen Yuan and Valeree Siow in their first-round match in the women’s doubles category. Playing on court 2, they won the match by 21-11, 21-13 and advanced to the round of 32.

In the mixed doubles category, the Indian duo of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan lost to Britain’s duo of Gregory Mairs and Jenny Moore in their first-round match. They lost 21-10, 23-21.

The men’s doubles pair of K P Garaga and VVG Panjala also lost in straight sets to the French pair of F Delrue and W Villeger 21-14, 21-18.

The mixed duo of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto suffered a loss at the hands of the Thai pair Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran in straight sets in a Round of 32 match. They lost 14-21, 17-21.

The BWF World Championships 2022 started in Japan from August 22 and will go on till August 28.