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All England C'ships: Saina, Srikanth advance after Praneeth stuns Lee

March 10, 2016 15:26 IST

India's Saina Nehwal

IMAGE: India's Saina Nehwal. Photograph: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images for Falcon

Unheralded Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth scripted one of the biggest wins of his career, stunning two-time Olympic silver medallist and former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the opening round of the prestigious All England Championships in Birmingham on Wednesday.

In a match that lasted 50 minutes, Praneeth punched way above his weight as he eked out a 24-22, 22-20 win over three-time champion and second seed Lee Chong Wei in a men's singles match.

He will next take on Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.

Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma also advanced to the second round of the $550,000 tournament at the Barclaycard Arena.

World No. 2 Saina, 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.

World No. 10 Srikanth ousted England's Rajiv Ouseph 21-17, 21-12. The Guntur lad will meet fourth seed Japan's Kento Momota.

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.

But it was a disappointing day for P V Sindhu who lost to Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 21-18, 17-21, 12-21.

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