Sindhu in quarters with easy win, Saina, Prannoy make early exit
SINDHU, WHO IS A THREETIME WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MEDALLIST, WILL NEXT TAKE ON ANOTHER JAPANESE, FIFTH SEED AKANE YAMAGUCHI.
NEWDELHI: It was a mixed day for Indian shuttlers at the $400,000 Hong Kong Open Superseries badminton tournament.
While second seed PV Sindhu marched into the quarter-finals of women’s singles at the Hong Kong Coliseum, Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy’s journey came to an end as they went down in three-game battles in the second round.
World No.3 Sindhu had an easy outing on Thursday as she moved past Japan’s Aya Ohori in just 39 minutes. The Rio Olympics silver medallist came out on top with a 21-14, 21-17 win to take her third victory in as many outings against the World No.13 Japanese.
Sindhu, who is a three-time World Championships medallist, will next take on another Japanese, this time fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi.
It is bound to be a tough contest for Sindhu against the World No.2. Though the Hyderabadi has a 3-2 advantage in career meetings over Akane, Sindhu lost the only match they played this year at the French Open Superseries last month.
But Sindhu can take heart from the fact that she has won each time (twice) the contest has entered the decider against Akane.
Later in the day, newly crowned national champion Saina lost her second round match to Chen Yufei. After losing the first game, the Chinese eighth seed turned the tables on the London Olympics bronze medallist to win 18-21, 21-19, 21-10 in exactly an hour.
This was the first contest between the two top-10 shuttlers. Chen will next face top seeded Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.
It was another disappointment for the new men’s singles national champion Prannoy, who lost a tough battle to Kazumasa Sakai.
The Japanese qualifier came out with his best to beat an in-form Prannoy 11-21, 21-10, 21-15 in 54 minutes.
Prannoy has now lost all three matches he has played against Sakai, who will next face Denmark’s Anders Antonsen.
SINDHU, SRIKANTH SLIP TO NO.3, SAINA IN TOP-10
While Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth both dropped a place to be ranked No.3 in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, Saina rose a spot to be back in the top-10.
Sindhu dropped a place to be No.3 in women’s singles while Saina, who has made a brilliant comeback to the circuit after a career threatening injury, rose a spot to be at No.10.
In men’s singles rankings, Srikanth remains India’s top shuttler at No.3, even though he slipped a spot.
HS Prannoy, who was recently crowned national champion, remained static at No.10. B Sai Praneeth, who won the Singapore Open Superseries earlier this year, lost a spot to be ranked No.17 while Sameer Verma rose one place to be No.20.