Saina, who missed the All England Championships and has dropped to 32 in the BWF Rankings, was heavily strapped in her right knee. She appeared sluggish and was slow off the blocks, trailing Yigit 4-11.
Saina, on the other hand, fought back to close the gap to 13-15, but the Turkish shuttler eventually won the first game. A rusty Saina struggled in the second game, trailing 6-11 at the half and eventually losing the tie in straight games.
Sameer Verma, on the other hand, blew a game lead to lose 19-21, 21-19, 21-17 to Nhat Nguyen of Ireland. In other first-round men’s singles matches, Manjunath of India defeated Denmark’s higher-ranked Victor Svendsen 24-22, 25-23, while Rajawat defeated compatriot Kiran George 21-18, 21-13.
Manjunath will face Yu Jen of Taipei, who was fortunate to advance after fifth seed Rasmus Gemke retired in the second game after winning the first. Rajawat, on the other hand, will face Japan’s top seed Kenta Nishimoto.
Nishimoto defeated Chia Hao Lee of Taipei 21-18, 21-11. Tanya won the women’s singles 21-17 21-18 over France’s Leonice Huet, while Aakarshi came back from a game down to beat Japan’s Natsuki Nidaira 8-21 21-13 8-21.
Tasnim Mir was defeated by Germany’s Yvonne Li 22-20 13-21 5-21. Later in the day, B Sai Praneeth will begin his men’s singles campaign against Malaysia’s Jun Hao Leong.
Later on Wednesday, Ashmita Chaliha and the two mixed doubles pairs of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor will compete.
