Indian badminton endures tough Day: Seven first-round Exits, Srikanth retires early

Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth had a day to forget as he was forced to retire early from his opening match against Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia due to a fitness issue at the Canada Open Super 300 badminton tournament.Srikanth, who finished runner-up at the US Open Super 300 last Sunday, was in good form heading into the tournament. Before his retirement, the 33-year-old was trailing 10-11 against Lee Zii Jia in the opening round of the men's singles when he decided to withdraw after a brief conversation with his coach, B Sai Praneeth.Meanwhile, Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap emerged as the only Indian players to progress to the women's singles second round.Aakarshi Kashyap, on the other hand, defeated France's Anna Tatranova 21-14, 21-12 to book a second-round clash against fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of the USA.In another women's singles match, Tanya Hemnath also impressed, beating USA's Disha Gupta 21-16, 21-18 to set up a second-round encounter against Japan's Riko Gunji.Apart from these two victories, it was a disappointing day for the Indian contingent, with seven of the nine Indian shuttlers crashing out in the very first round.

Fifth seed Devika Sihag, who won her maiden BWF World Tour Super 300 title at the Thailand Masters earlier this year, lost 14-21, 15-21 to Chinese Taipei's Tung Ciou-Tong.Rakshitha Ramraj, winner of this year's Vietnam International Challenge, fought hard before going down 15-21, 21-14, 21-15 to Canada's Rachel Chan.Shriyanshi Valishetty, who claimed her maiden BWF Super 100 title at the Al Ain Masters earlier this year, also bowed out after losing 9-21, 18-21 to Chinese Taipei's Huang Ching Pi.Anmol Kharb put up a spirited fight against the home favourite and top seed but eventually lost 6-21, 26-24, 13-21.