India endured a disappointing start to the Canada Open Super 300 badminton tournament, with Kidambi Srikanth retiring from his opening-round match due to fitness concerns and only Tanya Hemnath and Aakarshi Kashyap advancing to the second round of the women’s singles competition.

Fresh from finishing runner-up at the US Open Super 300 last week, the 33-year-old Srikanth was trailing 10-11 against Malaysia’s Paris Olympic bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia when he decided to retire from the contest. After consulting coach B. Sai Praneeth during the opening game, the former world championship silver medallist was unable to continue because of fitness issues.

The women’s singles draw provided the only positives for the Indian contingent. Aakarshi Kashyap produced a comfortable 21-14, 21-12 victory over France’s Anna Tatranova to book a second-round clash against fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of the United States.

Tanya Hemnath also progressed after defeating USA’s Disha Gupta 21-16, 21-18 in straight games. She will now take on Japan’s Riko Gunji for a place in the quarterfinals.

Apart from those victories, it proved to be a difficult outing for Indian players, with seven of the nine shuttlers in action failing to move beyond the opening round.

Fifth seed Devika Sihag, who captured her maiden BWF World Tour Super 300 title at the Thailand Masters earlier this year, suffered a 14-21, 15-21 defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Tung Ciou-Tong.

Rakshitha Ramraj, winner of this year’s Vietnam International Challenge, fought hard before losing 21-15, 14-21, 15-21 to Canada’s Rachel Chan. Shriyanshi Valishetty, who claimed her first BWF Super 100 title at the Al Ain Masters earlier this year, also exited after a 9-21, 18-21 loss to Chinese Taipei’s Huang Ching Pi.

Anmol Kharb pushed top seed and home favourite Michelle Li in a spirited contest but eventually went down 6-21, 26-24, 13-21.

India’s men’s singles campaign also suffered setbacks as Saneeth Dayanand and Sankar Subramanian bowed out in the opening round. Saneeth lost 7-21, 11-21 to Japan’s third seed Yudai Okimoto, while Sankar was beaten 21-19, 15-21, 15-21 by Korea’s Yoo Tae-bin after taking the opening game.

In men’s doubles, Achutaditya Rao Doddavarapu and Arjun Reddy Pochana, India’s lone representatives in the event, were also eliminated in the opening round, leaving Aakarshi Kashyap and Tanya Hemnath as the country’s only remaining singles contenders.