Srikanth in last-8, Sindhu exits early again

SINDHU HAS BEEN STRUGGLING FOR FORM SINCE BECOMING WORLD CHAMPION IN AUGUST. SRIKANTH ONLY INDIAN IN FRAY

HONGKONG:WORLD champion PV Sindhu’s dismal run continued as she exited the Hong Kong Open in the second round while Kidambi Srikanth entered the last eight for the first time in seven months after beating Sourabh Verma here on Thursday.

It was also curtains for HS Prannoy, and 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap after they suffered contrasting losses in the second round.

World No 6 Sindhu went down 18-21, 21-11, 16-21 to world No 18 Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in an hour and nine minutes. This was Sindhu’s first loss to the Thai player in 11 meetings.

Sindhu, who claimed the World Championships gold in August, has made early exits in a series of recent tournaments in China, South Korea and Denmark.

Sindhu made three secondround exits and two first-round exits besides reaching quarterfinals in French Open.

ALL-INDIAN AFFAIR Earlier, former world No 1 Srikanth, who slipped to 13th in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings on Tuesday, emerged as the only Indian survivor after notching a 21-11, 15-21, 21-19 win over compatriot Verma in the men’s singles second round. This was Srikanth’s second win in as many meetings against Verma.

Srikanth had last reached the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open in April.

The Guntur-born shuttler, who received a first round bye after world No 1, top seed and reigning world champion Kento Momota of Japan pulled out, will face Olympic champion Chen Long next.

The Chinese holds a 6-1 advantage over Srikanth in career meetings.

Earlier, HS Prannoy suffered a 12-21, 19-21 loss to sixth seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie in the second round.

This was Prannoy’s third loss in four meetings against the Asian Games champion. Kashyap played his heart out before going down narrowly to world No 2 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei. He lost 21-12, 21-23, 10-21 in exactly an hour.

In other results, fourth seeded Japanese pair of Arisa Higashino and Yuta Watanabe beat Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-19, 21-12 in 42 minutes in mixed doubles.