CHENNAI: As many as seven players, including men’s singles No 1 seed Kidambi Srikanth, tested positive for Covid-19 and were forced to withdraw from the ongoing Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 500 meet in New Delhi.
All the players had reportedly undergone a mandatory RT-PCR test on Tuesday. Apart from Srikanth, the other players to suffer the unfornunate fate are Ashwini Ponnappa, Ritika Thaker, Simran Aman Singhi, Treesa Jolly, Mithun Manjunath and Khushi Gupta.
“Badminton World Federation (BWF) can confirm that seven players have been withdrawn from the Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2022 after testing positive for Covid-19,” the BAI-BWF stated in a joint release.
It’s not just the in-form Srikanth, who was forced to skip his second-round match on Thursday, that suffered. All the close contacts of the seven players were also withdrawn from the event. In total, there were 11 walkovers across all categories on Thursday.
On the court, Saina Nehwal, who’s making a return after injury, was handed a reality check on the day. Yet to attain 100 per cent match fitness, the former World No 1 crashed out after losing (21-17, 21-9) against Malvika Bansod.For Malvika, who’s trying to find her feet in the senior international circuit, the result was a big shot in the arm.