After Covid up-sides and withdrawals defaced last week’s India Open, the Syed Modi International Badminton Tournament here started on Tuesday with a spate of positive tests, withdrawals and the delay of twofold Olympic medallist PV Sindhu’s match by a day because of a forthcoming RT-PCR test report.
The field in the World Tour Super 300 occasion is drained after Lakshya Sen, who won the India Open in the wake of overcoming title holder Loh Kean Yew in the last, pulled out refering to fatigue after a pressed timetable since October, which remembers a bronze at the big showdowns for Spain last month.
Saina Nehwal and spouse P Kashyap, two times previous hero here, have skirted the $150,000 occasion alongside the India Open men’s duplicates champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Big showdowns silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth also is missing having tried positive at the India Open.
The Indian players who tried positive on Tuesday incorporate India’s Rahul Yadav Chittabonia, Ashmita Chaliha, Sanyogita Ghorpade and Shruti Mishra.
HS Prannoy entered the men’s singles second round, the fifth-seed requiring only 36 minutes to beat Ukraine’s Danylo Bosniuk 21-14, 2-18. Prannoy, who lost to Sen in the India Open quarterfinals, will next meet comrade Priyanshu Rajawat, who got a first-round walkover from Chittabonia.
Fourth seed Sameer Verma resigned while following 2-7 against Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in the main game because of a lower leg muscle injury. A double cross previous boss here, he had resigned in the second round at the India Open because of the issue which initially surfaced in October.
Subhankar Dey additionally resigned because of injury against countryman Kartikey Gulshan Kumar while following 2-9 in the initial game.
In ladies’ singles, Ashmita Chaliha gave a walkover to Malvika Bansod. Aakarshi Kashyap beat Mugdha Agrey 21-13, 21-14 and Anupama Upadhyaya crushed Rituparna Das 21-7, 21-10.
“It was an extreme first day for us as things were hard to deal with. We could begin the match solely after going through the RT-PCR and Antigen trial of the members here,” said a competition official. “Indeed, even the chief’s meet last evening was postponed after a critical authority tried positive for Covid.”
