Indian shuttlers struggle in opening round of German Open

Mulheim an der Ruhr (Germany), Feb 25 (PTI) Indian shuttlers struggled in their opening round matches of the German Open Super 300 badminton tournament, here on Wednesday.

Kiran George lost to top seed Christo Popov of France 10-21, 20-22 in 47 minutes in a men's singles round of 32 match.

Tharun Mannepalli also lost to Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei in 44 minutes in another men's singles first round match.

In the women's singles, Malvika Bansod went down fighting to Beiwen Zhang of USA 21-19, 9-21, 19-21 in 56 minutes in a round of 32 match.

Tasnim Mir lost to top seed Wang Zhi Yi of China 9-21, 14-21 in 28 minutes in another women's singles first round match.

Veteran shuttler Kidambi Srikanth in men's singles and World Junior Championships silver medallist Tanvi Sharma in the women's singles are among the top Indians taking part in the Super 300 tournament. PTI PDS PDS DDV