SEOUL: Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy and Priyanshu Rajawat entered the second round of the Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament while PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth bowed out on Wednesday, as per Olympics.com.
Sindhu has again disappointed with her play, she lost to Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 21-10, 13-21 in 58 minutes.
This was also PV Sindhu’s first official match under new coach Muhammad Hafiz Hashim. The Malaysian’s appointment was formally announced on Tuesday.
According to Olympics.com, The first round exit in the Republic of Korea was the Indian badminton player’s sixth opening round ouster in 12 BWF World Tour tournament appearances this season. PV Sindhu had also failed to progress beyond the first hurdle at the Malaysia Open, India Open, All England Open, Thailand Open and Singapore Open.
She will be in action next at the Japan Open, which starts from July 25.
PV Sindhu’s loss was, in fact, just the highlight of what was a disappointing day for Indian shuttlers in Korea. Indian badminton players won only three of their 13 matches on Day 2.
Two of the three triumphs came in men’s singles. HS Prannoy scored an easy 21-13, 21-17 victory over Belgium’s Julien Carraggi while Priyanshu Rajawat defeated Korea’s Choi Ji Hoon 21-15, 21-19 to set up a second round clash against Japanese top seed Kodai Naraoka.
Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy, meanwhile, made the second round in mixed doubles after defeating the Philippines’ Alvin Morada and Alyssa Ysabel Leonardo 21-17, 21-17.
In women’s singles, Malvika Bansod lost 21-17, 21-7 to Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying, the current world No. 4. Ashmita Chaliha, meanwhile, succumbed 21-13, 21-12 to the Republic of China’s Chen Yu Fei, the reigning Olympic champion.
Another Chinese shuttler, Zhang Yi Man, ousted Aakarshi Kashyap from the first round while Tasnim Mir fell to local player Kim Ga Yun. Tanya Hemnath was shown the door by Japan’s Saena Kawakami.
Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth conceded a lead to go down 12-21, 24-22, 21-17 to Japan’s Kento Momota in men’s singles while his Indian compatriot Kiran George lost 17-21, 9-21 to Chinese Taipei shuttler Wang Tzu Wei. Mithun Manjunath also suffered an 11-21, 4-21 loss to Malaysian NG Tze Yong.
B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 21-23, 21-13, 12-21 to the Korean pair of Song Hyun Cho and Lee Jung Hyun.
The series of exits on Wednesday only leaves HS Prannoy and Priyanshu Rajawat (men’s singles), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (men’s doubles), Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand (women’s doubles) and Rohan Kapoor-N Sikki Reddy (mixed doubles) as the Indian challengers still alive at the Korea Open 2023.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won their men’s doubles first round match on Tuesday while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand received a walkover in their opener. (ANI)