Srikanth, Sindhu advance; Prannoy bows out
nanjing — PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth notched up contrasting wins to progress to the pre-quarterfinals but world no 11 H S Prannoy suffered a shock defeat to unheralded Brazilian Ygor Coelho to bow out of the World Championship in Nanjing on Wednesday.
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who had got a bye in the first round, opened her campaign with an easy 21-14, 21-9 win over Indonesia’s Fitriani.
The 23-year-old Indian, who won the silver medal last year, will face Korean Sung Ji Hyun, a 2015 World Championship bronze medallist, in the next round.
Srikanth, seeded fifth, recovered from a slump during the hardfought contest to see off Spain’s Pablo Abian 21-15, 12-21, 21-14 in a second-round match that lasted 62 minutes.
The 25-year-old Indian, who had clinched four titles last year, will lock horns with Malaysia’s Daren Liew, a former world no 10, who had won the 2012 French Open Super Series.
B Sai Praneeth also entered the next round after defeating Spain’s Luis Enrique Penalver 21-18, 21-11 to set up a meeting with Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.
However, Prannoy and Sameer Verma bowed out of the tournament. Prannoy, seeded 11th, couldn’t hold on to the momentum after breezing through the opening game to eventually lose 21-8, 16-21, 15-21 to Coelho, ranked 39th in the world.
Later, Sameer failed to get across former two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan, losing 17-21, 14-21 in a 45-minute match.
It also turned out to be a disastrous day for the Indian doubles pairs as all of them lost their respective matches to crash out of the prestigious tournament.
Commonwealth Games silver medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty did all the hard work but couldn’t go the full distance, losing narrowly 18-21, 21-15, 16-21 to world no 8 Denmark pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in men’s doubles.
Ashwini Ponnapa and N Sikki Reddy were no match for second seeded Japanese combination of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota, going down 14-21, 15-21 in the second round women’s doubles event.
National champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy waged a gallant battle before losing 24-22, 1321, 16-21 to seventh seed Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko of Japan in men’s doubles.
After a forgettable outing, Prannoy said: “I was trying to do something in the second and third game but it wasn’t working. He was retrieving everything and my defence was bad today. I gave him a lot of chances for a free dribble and hit and that made him comfortable,” he said.
“I think it’s one match I need to forget as soon as possible and get back to work.”
Defending world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark beat Huang Yuxiang 21-17, 21-8 to advance to the round of 16. —