Hong Kong Open: Sindhu suffers first-round exit; Lakshya, Prannoy advance

Fresh from a quarter-final appearance at the Badminton World Championships last month in Paris, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu made a disappointing exit from the Hong Kong Open Super 500 on Wednesday after losing a tense three-game women’s singles battle to Denmark’s Line Christophersen in the opening round.

The 30-year-old Indian went down 21-15, 16-21, 19-21 in the round of 32. It was her first defeat in six meetings against the European Championships silver medallist and marked her sixth opening-round loss on the BWF World Tour this year.

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Heading into the contest, Sindhu began on a promising note, reeling off seven of the last eight points to comfortably clinch the opening game. Christophersen, however, clawed her way back in the second before edging a nervy decider that stood locked at 19-all. The Dane held firm to close out her maiden win over the Indian.

India also suffered setbacks in another women’s singles contest, with Anupama Upadhyaya bowing out after a hard-fought 17-21, 22-20, 14-21 loss to Japan’s fourth seed Tomoka Miyazaki.

Lakshya, Prannoy set up face-off

In men’s singles, Lakshya Sen, battling an uncharacteristic slump, showed grit to outlast Chinese Taipei’s Olympian Wang Tzu-wei 22-20, 16-21, 21-15 in an hour and 13 minutes. He next faces compatriot H S Prannoy, who upset China’s Lu Guang Zu 21-17, 21-14 in just 44 minutes.

Kiran George also progressed with a 21-16, 21-11 win over Singapore’s Jason Teh, while youngster Ayush Shetty rallied from a game down to beat Su Li-yang of Chinese Taipei 15-21, 21-19, 21-13.

Elsewhere, the Panda sisters, Rutaparna and Swetaparna, exited in the women’s doubles, losing 17-21, 9-21 to Hong Kong’s Oi Ki Vanessa Pang and Sum Yau Wong. The mixed doubles duo Dhruv Kapil and Tanisha Crasto also fell in straight games, 16-21, 11-21, against Chinese Taipei’s Chen Cheng Kuan and Hsu Yin-Hui.