PV Sindhu in Hong Kong Open badminton quarterfinals, HS Prannoy, Saina Nehwal lose
PV Sindhu defeated Aya Ohori 21-14, 21-17 to advance to the quarterfinals of Hong Kong Open Superseries badminton tournament. HS Prannoy and Saina Nehwal lost their second round matches.
It was a mixed day for Indian shuttlers at the $400,000 Hong Kong Open Superseries badminton tournament.
While second seed PV Sindhu marched into the quarterfinals of women’s singles at the Hong Kong Coliseum, Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy’s journey came to an end as they went down in three-game battles in the second round.
World No.3 Sindhu had an easy outing on Thursday as she eased past Japan’s Aya Ohori in just 39 minutes. The Rio Olympics silver medallist came out on top with a 21-14, 21-17 win to take her third victory in as many outings against the World No.13 Japanese.
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Sindhu, who is a three-time World Championships medallist, will next take on another Japanese, this time fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi.
It is bound to be a tough contest for Sindhu against the World No.2. Though the Hyderabadi has a 3-2 advantage in career meetings over Akane, Sindhu lost the only match they played this year at the French Open Superseries last month.
But Sindhu can take heart from the fact that she has won each time (twice) the contest has entered the decider against Akane.
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Later in the day, newly crowned Indian national champion Saina lost her women’s singles second round to Chen Yufei. After losing the first game, the Chinese eighth seed turned the tables on the London Olympics bronze medallist to win 18-21, 21-19, 21-10 in exactly an hour.
This was the first contest between the two top-10 shuttlers. Chen will next face top seeded Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.
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It was another disappointment for the new men’s singles national champion Prannoy who lost a tough battle to Kazumasa Sakai. The Japanese qualifier came out with his best to beat an in-form Prannoy 11-21, 21-10, 21-15 in 54 minutes.
Prannoy has now lost all three matches he has played against Sakai, who will next face Denmark’s Anders Antonsen.