All England Badminton: Praneeth stuns world no. 2 Lee in opener

Unheralded B. Sai Praneeth inflicted a stunning defeat on Lee Chong Wei, the former world number who has been making a comeback at the age of 33, dumping him out in the first round of the All-England Open.

Saina Nehwal, meanwhile sailed into the quarter-finals with a 21-16 21-9 win over Thailand's Busanan Ongbumrungphan in the second round on Thursday.

The world no. 2, who is making a comeback after a long injury lay-off, had dispatched Commonwealth Games champion Michelle Li of Canada 21-17 21-12 in the opening round on Wednesday night.

Lee suffered one of the biggest shocks of his career when he lost 24-22, 22-20 to the world no. 37th Indian, who looked to have little chance when he slipped to deficits of 3-11 and 6-15 in the first game.

But once Lee made a few mistakes, Praneeth’s hopes grew and his game showed itself capable of winning rallies of the highest standard. He was fast, sometimes brilliant in defence, and had nothing to lose when launching sudden flat attacks.

“I can’t believe I lost in the first round,” said Lee, who has won the All-England title three times. “I prepared very well.

“Maybe I have put a lot of pressure on myself to win this tournament. I made a lot of mistakes. I was also shocked at how well Praneeth played.

“But it is all a learning process. I am sad to lose at a tournament like the All-England, but my aim is the Olympics.”

Lee had looked to have regained control with his clever tactical varieties when he advanced to lead 17-12 in the second game.

He also had game points at 20-19 in both games, with the first being foiled by Praneeth’s diving defence and later missing his chance to take the match to a third by narrowly putting a smash wide.

Two rallies later, the 23-year-old from Andhra Pradesh took his first chance to win the match, making a sudden fast mid-court jab which forced Lee to block the shuttle long and caused Praneeth to hurl his racket away in joy.

“It’s a big shock for me too,” Praneeth grinned. “After the last rally I couldn’t believe it. For a long time I have been waiting for a big result. I’ve had close results against top players before.”

Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma too entered the second round of the $550,000 tournament.

World no. 10 Srikanth too showed the door to England’s Rajiv Ouseph 21-17, 21-12. The Guntur lad will meet Japan’s Kento Momota, seeded fourth.

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 faces Chinese eight seed Tian Houwei next.

For P.V. Sindhu, it turned out to be yet another disappointment as she lost 21-18, 17-21, 12-21 to Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand.