Star India shuttler Saina Nehwal and former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth entered the second rounds of their respective events but Parupalli Kashyap made an early exit from the Thailand Open Super 1000 tournament here on Wednesday.
Saina got the better of Selvaduray Kisona of Malaysia 21-15, 21-15 in the opening round. Saina, who was first forced to withdraw from the event for positive Covid-19 results on Tuesday but later returned a negative test, thanked the Badminton World Federation (BWF) officials for allowing her to participate.
Earlier, Srikanth prevailed over compatriot Sourabh Verma 21-12, 21-11 but Kashyap was forced to retire after pulling a calf muscle midway in his match against Jason Anthony Ho-Shue of Canada.
On Tuesday, Srikanth had shared pictures of his bleeding nose following Covid-19 tests and had spoken out against the “unacceptable” treatment. The BWF on Wednesday said it was working with Thailand Open organisers to ensure “comfortable” Covid-19 testing conditions during the tournament.
