Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out of the Hong Kong Open Super 500 badminton tournament on Wednesday, while HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen advanced to the next round with hard-fought victories.
Sindhu, who had reached the BWF World Championships quarterfinals last month, lost to unseeded Danish shuttler Line Christophersen in the women's singles round-of-32 contest, 21-15, 16-21, 19-21.
However, World No. 34 Prannoy defeated 14th-ranked Lu Guang Zu of China 21-17, 21-14 in 44 minutes, while Sen also got through to the men's singles pre-quarterfinals round with a testing 22-20, 16-21, 21-15 victory.
Kiran George also secured a place in the men's singles last-16 by subduing Singapore's higher-ranked Jia Heng Jason Teh 21-16, 21-11 in just 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.
Sindhu’s loss in the round-of-32 contest was her first one to 25-year-old Christophersen in six outings. This defeat comes at a time when she was beginning to find her form after early exits at the Swiss Open and Japan Open earlier this year.
Sindhu took an early 3-1 lead in the first game before her opponent equalised 5-all. Leading 14-13, Sindhu upped her game, allowing Christophersen just one point before taking the opener. The second game saw the Indian leading 13-12 before errors cropped up in her game as she gave away five points on the trot.
The decider was a battle of nerves with both players going neck and neck till 19-all before two decisive points for Christophersen ended Sindhu's campaign.
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 just 28 minutes, while the Chinese Taipei duo of Chen Cheng Kuan and Hsu Yin-Hui got the better of Dhruv Kapil and Tanisha Crasto 16-21, 11-21 in 31 minutes.
India's Rakshitha Ramraj will play her round-of-32 singles match against fifth-seeded former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, while the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde will take on the second-seeded Chinese pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping.
India's top men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had defeated Taiwan's Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang Chi-Lin in their opening round on Tuesday.
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