Indonesia Open: Indian challenge ends after Sindhu, Prannoy loses in quarters

India's challenge at the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open came to a disappointing end after both P.V.Sindhu and H.S.Prannoy lost their respective quarter-final matches in straight games here on Friday.

Rio Olympics silver medallist and third-seeded Sindhu went down to eighth seed He Bing Jiao of China 14-21, 15-21 in the women's singles quarter-final after Prannoy lost to another Chinese Shi Yuqi 17-21, 18-21 in the men's singles tie.

World No.3 Sindhu went on the backfoot straightway in the opening game before gaining lost ground as the Indian went in to the breather trailing 10-11.

But from then, it was one-way traffic from the Chinese world no.7 shuttler, who took a massive 19-11 lead before comfortably clinching it 21-14.

Sindhu, however came back well taking a 5-1 lead in the second before Bing Jiao bounced back to overhaul the lead and go 11-9 midway into the game.

The story was similar in the second half as the Chinese stretched her lead to 18-12 before Sindhu managed to gather a couple of points but that wasn't enough for her.

Earlier in the day, world no.14 Prannoy too suffered a straight games defeat at the hands of world no.3 Shi Yuqi to bow out of the tournament.

In the opening game, Prannoy fought hard to trail 8-11 at the break but the Chinese kept his domination throughout to pocket it comfortably 21-17.

The second game went on similar lines with the Indian trailing 8-11 midway, before eventually sinking to 18-21 and crash out of the tournament.

--IANS

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