Srikanth's title defence ends, Sindhu wins at Indonesia Open

Jakarta: Defending champion Kidambi Srikanth's campaign ended with a narrow opening-round loss but Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu eked out a thrilling win to progress to the women's singles pre-quarterfinals of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament here on Wednesday.

Former World No. 1 Srikanth suffered his second successive loss to in-form Japanese Kento Momota, ranked 11th, in two weeks. The Indian lost 21-12 14-21 15-21 in the opening match that lasted exactly an hour at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno.

Momota had ended Srikanth's campaign at Malaysia Open last week and even though the Indian failed to avenge the loss, it was a far superior performance by the 25-year-old fourth seed.

Overall, it was Srikanth's seventh loss to the former world No. 2 Momota, who has been in impressive form since coming back from a one-year ban due to illegal gambling.

However, Sindhu brought some smiles back in the Indian camp after seeing off Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-15 19-21 21-13, setting up a clash with Japan's Aya Ohori on the eve of her 23rd birthday on Thursday. Earlier, young Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka went down 12-21 10-21 to Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt.

The men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy stretched the world no 2 Chinese pair of Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan to three games before surrendering 21-15 15-21 17-21 to the third seeded combo. In mixed

doubles, Pranaav Jerry

Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost 12-21 14-21 to fourth seeded pair of Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong of China.

In the women's singles match, Sindhu was asked some serious questions by the 20-year-old Pornpawee, as she grabbed a slender 11-10 lead at the first interval. The Indian seemed to struggle with her timing initially but two cross court smash and a misjudgment at backline by her opponent helped Sindhu to lead 14-13.