Srikanth in Japan quarters, Sindhu out
Fatigue caught up with PV Sindhu as she was upstaged in straight games but Kidambi Srikanth entered the quarter-finals of the $700,000 Japan Open here on Thursday.
Sindhu was beaten by China’s Gao Fangjie in the second round, her first preliminary exit in almost a year. Sindhu went down fighting 18-21, 19-21 in 55 minutes to the world no 14 Chinese. She had lost in the opening round at the Denmark Open last October.
Former world no.1 Srikanth avenged his Asian Games loss to Hong Kong’s Vincent Wong Wing Ki with a clinical 21-15, 21-14 victory to enter the last-eight.
The seventh-seeded Indian, who won a silver at the Commonwealth Games, will face Korea’s Lee Dong Keun next.
However, it was curtains for the other Indian in the men’s draw, HS Prannoy, as he went down to giant-killer Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. The world no.10 Indonesian had defeated formidable Japanese Kento Momota and Olympic champion Chen Long at the Asian Games.
DRAINED SINDHU
Sindhu, who has endured a hectic BWF season, reaching five finals including three majors at the CWG, World Championship and Asian Games, seemed drained as errors crept into her game.
Gao relied on her deception to trouble Sindhu early on and took a 8-2 lead. But Sindhu slowly got her bearings, reaching the shuttles early and placing them perfectly. She put Gao on the wrong foot to narrow the lead to 8-10 but a weak return going to the net gave a three-point advantage to the Chinese.
Two unforced errors by Gao brought Sindhu back at 13-13. She grabbed a 17-14 lead but it soon vaporised with the Indian committing a few errors.
In the second game, Sindhu opened up a 5-0 lead before committing a service error. Gao soon dominated the rallies and clawed back at 7-7 after producing a winner on Sindhu’s weak return.
Gao continued to dominate the rallies and soon grabbed five match points at 20-15. Sindhu saved four before hitting the net again to end her campaign here.
In doubles, the men’s pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost 18-21, 21-16 12-21 to China’s He Jiting and Tan Qiang, while the mixed combination of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost 16-21, 16-21 to the Malaysian pair of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in another match.
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