Jakarta: World champion Pusarla Venkata Sindhu lost to Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi in a tight second-round clash to bow out of the Indonesia Masters badminton tournament being played at Jakarta ‘s Gelora Bung Karno Sports Palace in Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex on Thursday. Sindhu lost 21-16, 16-21, 19-21 in an hour and six minutes.
Before this game, Sindhu had a 4-2 head to head ratio against the 14th ranked Japanese, who had defeated Saina Nehwal in the first round. Sindhu was the only Indian who managed to get through to the second round on Wednesday as she had come from a game down to beat Japan`s Aya Ohori 14-21, 21-15, 21-11.
The Indian challenge had suffered a major blow on Wednesday when Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, Sourabh Verma and mixed doubles pair Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy had lost their first round matches.
Saina, who was the defending champion in the women`s singles category, lost to Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi. She won the first game but then was completely outclassed in the second and third with the final scoreline reading 19-21, 21-13, 21-5 in the Japanese player’s favour.
Srikanth went down to local favourite Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 21-18, 12-21, 14-21 in a match lasting one hour and three minutes. It was Srikanth`s second consecutive opening round defeat this season as he had also made a first round exit from the Malaysia Masters held from 7- 12 January at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.
Sourabh lost to Chinese shuttler Lu Guangzu in the opening round as well. Despite winning the first game 21-17, the Indian shuttler went down 15-21, 10-21 in the next two rounds to crash out of the tournament.
In mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy went down in straight games to the South Korean duo of Ko Sung Hyun and Eom Hye Won 8-21, 14-21.
Later, the men`s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take the court as will Sameer Verma, Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy in men`s singles.
Source: Zee News