PV Sindhu crashes out of All England Open in first round after losing to lower-ranked Kim Ga-eun

PV Sindhu crashed out of the All England Open Badminton Championships in the first round after suffering a 21-19, 13-21, 13-21 loss at the hands of South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun in Birmingham on Wednesday. The two-time Olympic medallist ended up on the losing side despite collecting a nervy win in the first game against her lower-ranked opponent.

Kim, who sits 63 places below Sindhu at 79th in the latest BWF rankings, fought back in style in the first-round battle that lasted a little over an hour and did not allow Sindhu to find her rhythm in the next two games.

Kim Ga Eun 🇰🇷 rivals Pusarla V. Sindhu 🇮🇳. #BWFWorldTour #AllEngland2025 pic.twitter.com/7noN6VJvau

— BWF (@bwfmedia) March 12, 2025

Sindhu leaves Birmingham early for fourth year running

Sindhu has now had four consecutive early exits from the prestigious tournament that has been in existence since 1899 and has been taking place at Arena Birmingham since 1994.

Since her semi-final defeat to Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in 2021, Sindhu has suffered first-round exits in 2023 and in the ongoing edition and bowed out in the second round in 2022 and 2024.

Since missing out on podium finish in the Paris Olympics after a Round of 16 defeat against China’s He Bingjiao, who would go on to win silver, Sindhu has had quarter-final exits at the Denmark Open and the India Open, the latter marking her first event of the year.

And at the Indonesia Masters, she would suffer a first-round exit following a straight-games defeat against Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen.

Besides Sindhu, HS Prannoy was the other big name crashing out of the All England Open in the first round, the 32-year-old losing to France’s Toma Junior Popov 21-19, 21-16. Lakshya Sen, who had finished runner-up in the 2022 edition after losing to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, progressed to the second round after defeating Chinese Taipei’s Su Li-yang 13-21, 21-17, 21-15.

Sen, who had narrowly missed out on a maiden Olympic medal in Paris after losing his bronze medal playoff against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, faces Indonesia’s Jonathan Cristie in the Round of 16.