Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth comfortably advanced into the quarter-finals, but it was the end for Asian Games silver medallist PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy in the second round of the USD 700,000 Japan Open in Tokyo on Thursday.
The former World No.1 Srikanth avenged his Asiad defeat to Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Hong Kong with a clinical straight sets victory. He beat Vincent 21-15, 21-14 to enter the men’s quarter-finals.
Srikanth, who suffered a shock second-round exit at the intercontinental event against the 20th ranked shuttler, will now face Korea’s Lee Dong Keun in the last eight.
Sindhu, however, failed to continue with her impressive silver-winning performance at the just concluded multi-event competition. She went down 18-21, 19-21 against China’s Gao Fangjie in the 55-minute women’s singles second round match.
It was world number three’s first preliminary exit, ever since the Denmark Open first round defeat last October. Sindhu, who has reached finals of all the major Badminton tournaments (Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Asian Games) looked tired and sluggish in her movements.
The hectic Badminton calendar seems to have fatigued her and despite putting up a decent fight, Sindhu failed to overcome the 14th ranked Chinese.
Gao led 8-2 at the start of the opening round, but Sindhu fought back to narrow the deficit to 8-10. A weak return into the net though gave the Chinese a three-point advantage. Sindhu rallied back to level the game at 13-13 and soon took a four-point lead, but continuous errors have Gao four points to Sindhu’s one, turning the game in her favour.
In the second game, the Indian looked to have found some touch back and opened a 5-0 lead in the second set, but Gao confident from her opening set win clawed back at 7-7. From there she grabbed a five-point lead at looked set to close the game at 20-15. Sindhu, however, saved four but found the net in the fifth, to knock herself out.
It also ended for giant-killer HS Prannoy, who went down to another surprise package Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. The World No.10 Indonesian had defeated Japan’s Jento Momota and Olympic champion Chen Long at the Asiad and continued with his form.
Meanwhile, in the double category, the men’s pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost 18-21, 21-16, 12-21 against He Jiting and Tan Qiang of China, while the mixed Indian pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy went down 16-21, 16-21 against the Malaysian combination of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying.
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Image Source: The Indian Express