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An in-form HS Prannoy cruised into the second round with an impressive showing, but the inconsistent race continued between PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth as they crashed out in the first round at the Korea Open Super 500 on Wednesday.
Fifth seed Prannoy, the only Indian player in the top 10, scored a 21-13 21-17 victory over Belgium’s Julien Karaji. The 31-year-old will face either Lee Yun Gyu or Lee Cheuk Yiu next.
Sindhu, who slipped to world number 17 this week, lost to the 32-year-old world no. 22 Bai Yubo from Chinese Taipei 18-21 21-10 13-21 in the opening round of women’s singles. The competition lasted 58 minutes.
Srikanth, on the other hand, squandered his match point advantage in match two to go down 21-12 22-24 17-21 over former world no. 1 Kento Momota from Japan.
This is the fifteenth loss for Srikanth and the twelfth consecutive defeat against the two-time world champion, who has fallen to world number 53 after struggling with his form in the past few years.
However, India’s Priyanshu Rajawat advanced to the second round with a straight match win over local player Choi Ji Hoon in the men’s singles competition.
World No. 32 Rajawat, winner of the Orleans Masters, outperformed Choi 21-15 21-19 in 42 minutes to set up a date with Japan’s No. 1 Kodai Naraoka.
Mixed N duo Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor, who won the Victor Denmark Masters International Challenge in June, advanced to the second round with a 21-17 victory over Filipinos Alvin Morada and Alyssa Ysabel Leonardo.
The Indian duo will face Chinese fourth seed Feng Yanzhi and Huang Dongping next.
However, Kieran George failed to cross the opening round barrier, falling to world number 29 Taipei’s Wang Tzu-wei 17-21 9-21 in another men’s singles match.
Aakarshi Kashyap, Tasnim Mir, Tanya Hemanth, Mithun Manjunath and Ashmita Chaliha – were all knocked out of the tournament in the first round, underlining the huge gap in quality in the second batch of Indian coaches.
While Kashyap lost 12-21 17-21 to China’s world No. 20 Zhang Ye-man, Mir fell 11-21 18-21 to Korea’s world No. 19 Kim Ja-eun and Tania lost 11-21 17-21 to world No. 32 Saina Kawakami of Japan. .
National champion Mithun was no match for Malaysia’s world number 23 Ng Tze-yung and Ashmita lost to Olympic champion Chen Yu in 13-21 12-21.
B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa suffered a 21-23 21-13 12-21 loss to Korean pair Song hyun Cho and Lee Jung Hyun in the opening round of the mixed doubles.
Sindhu entered the match with a 4-1 lead against Pai but could not limit her mistakes to go down in the finale.
A terrible start, mainly due to Sindhu’s unforced errors, saw them trailing 2-9 going into their opener.
The Indian either splashed the shuttle into the net or hit it long to deliver a massive 11-5 advantage to the Taiwanese, who managed to keep their lead despite a desperate fight from Sindh after the break.
Switching sides, Sindhu was different as she came out all guns blazing, zooming to 9-1 to finally shine back into the contest with a strong showing.
The winner turned into an exciting contest as the duo engaged in some fine rallies to move neck and neck to 9-9, after Sindhu blew a 4-1 lead.
A net foul meant that Pai took a slender two-point lead in the interval. However, things then changed as Sindhu’s game collapsed again as she continued to bat wide and long, allowing Pai to extend the lead to 18-12.
Sindhu’s shot was deflected and lifted as it ended with another net miss as Pai recorded only her second victory over the Indian in six meetings.
The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, Four Super 1000 and Super Six
750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300.
One other class of tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points.
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