HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen earn hard-fought wins
HONG KONG, Sep 10: India’s two-time Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu bowed out, while HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen earned hard-fought wins to advance in the Hong Kong Open Super 500 tournament 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 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 from Thailand Ratchanok Intanon, while the mixed doubles duo of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde will take on the second-seeded Chinese pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping. (PTI)