Mumbai, March 11 : India's former World No. 6, H.S. Prannoy crashed out of the prestigious All-England Badminton Championship, losing to Toma Junior Popov of France in straight games in a first-round clash in Birmingham on Tuesday.

Prannoy, who won a bronze medal in men's singles in the 2023 World Championships in Copenhagen and silver in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, went down 21-19, 21-16 to the 26-year-old World No. 17.

The 32-year-old Prannoy started the match on a solid note as he rushed to a 5-1 lead in Game One before the French player caught up with him at 6-6. The two players went neck-and-neck till 11-11. Prannoy opened up a lead of 15-12 but Popov again caught up at 16-16 and 18-18. The French shuttler then won the next three points to seal the first game.

The second game was also close at the start with Popov enjoying a slight edge till 7-6 after which opened up a 13-9 lead. Prannoy levelled scores at 13-13 but his rival won three points in a row to take a 16-13 lead and went on to win the game 21-16 and sealed victory in 53 minutes.

In another men's singles match, Lakshya Sen will play Li Yang Su of the Chinese Taipei in Utilita Arena in the BWF World Series Super 1000 event with a prize fund of USD 1,450,000.

Lakshya Sen had reached the semifinals at the All England last year before losing to eventual champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia. He was also the men's singles runners-up two years ago.

Two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu will spearhead the Indian campaign in the women's singles. Currently 15th in the women's singles rankings, Sindhu will return to the court for the first time since the Indonesia Masters in January.

World No. 28 Malvika Bansod is the only other Indian in the women's singles section along with Sindhu.

In men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty is the seventh seed and will be starting their campaign against Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard of Denmark in the first round. The world No. 7 Indian pair haven't played together competitively since January's Indonesia Masters.

In women's doubles, two-time All-England semifinalists Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand along with Tanisha Crasto-Ashwini Ponnappa and n Priya Konjengbam-Shruti Mishra are India's entries.

India will have three pairs in mixed doubles too with Rohan Kapoor-Ruthvika Gadde, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath, and Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto making up their challenge.

/IANS