Shuttler Praneeth suffers first-round exit at French Open

Ace Indian shuttler B. Sai Praneeth was knocked out of the ongoing French Open Super Series after suffering defeat at the hands of Lee Hyun Il of Korea in the opening round of the men's singles event here last evening.

After comfortably winning the first game, Praneeth failed to capitalize on it and eventually went down 21-15 , 8-21, 19-21 against his Korean opponent in a thrilling first-round contest that lasted about an hour at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin.

In another men's singles clash, Ajay Jayaram also crashed out of the tournament after going down 22-20, 10-21, 18-21 to Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.

Earlier, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu and Swiss Open champion H S Prannoy had stormed into the pre-quarter-finals of the tournament following a straight-games victory over their respective opponents.

Sindhu registered a 21-9, 29-27 win over Honk Kong's Yip Pui Yin while Prannoy swept aside Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 21-16, 21-18.

Sixth-seed Sindhu will now face China's He Bingjiao, while Prannoy will lock horns with Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen for a place in quarter-finals.