India's campaign over at New Zealand Open
4 Aug 2017 4:44 PM GMT
India's campaign at the New Zealand Open ended on Friday with H S Prannoy and Sourabh Verma crashing out after losing their respective quarterfinal matches in the men's singles competition of the Grand Prix Gold event here.
Fourth seeded Prannoy fought hard before being stunned by Chinese Taipei's Lin Yu Hsien, seeded 11th, while seventh seed Verma went down tamely to unseeded Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in straight games.
Prannoy, who had clinched the US Open title last month, was handed a 10-21 22-20 21-23 defeat in an hour and six minutes.
Former national champion Verma lost 19-21 16-21 in a match that lasted just 42 minutes.
The first game between Prannoy and Hsien was a closely- fought affair till 8-8 before the shuttler from Taipei surged a little ahead to lead 11-10 at the interval.
However, after the break, Prannoy failed to earn a single point, even as Hsien bagged 10 successive points to seal the opening game 21-10.
In the second game, Prannoy broke away from 5-5 to lead 13-8 at one stage, but the Taipei shuttler kept breathing down his neck and made it 17-17.
He then surged ahead to 20-18 before the Indian caught him at 20-20.
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