Sindhu falls flat early as Prannoy, Sen advance

hong kong: India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu bowed out, while HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen earned hard-fought wins to advance in the Hong Kong Open Super 500 here on Wednesday.

Sindhu, who had reached the BWF World Championships quarterfinals last month, lost the women’s singles round-of-32 contest 21-15 16-21 19-21 to unseeded Danish shuttler Line Christophersen.

However, Prannoy, ranked 34th in the world, humbled 14th ranked Lu Guang Zu of China 21-17 21-14 in 44 minutes, while Sen got his campaign going with a gruelling 22-20 16-21 21-15 win to secure a place in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals.

Kiran George also secured a place in the men’s singles last-16 getting the better of Singapore’s higher-ranked Jia Heng Jason Teh 21-16 21-11 in 34 minutes.

World No. 31 Ayush Shetty overcame a stiff challenge from lower-ranked Chinese-Taipei shuttler Su Li Yang 15-21, 21-19 21-13 in slightly over an hour to secure a place in the last-16 in men’s singles.

For Sindhu, this was her first loss to the 25-year-old Christophersen in six outings, coming at a time when the Indian star was beginning to rediscover her form after early exits earlier this year.

The women’s doubles pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda won their round-of-32 match against Hong Kong’s Oi Ki Vanessa Pang and Sum Yau Wong 17-21 9-21 in 28 minutes.