Indonesia Open: Sindhu in pre-quarters, Srikanth bows out

Rio Olympics silver medallist P.V. Sindhu was the lone bright spot in an otherwise disappointing day for India at the Indonesia Open badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

Barring Sindhu, who advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of women's singles after registering a win over Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-15, 19-21, 21-13, all the other Indian shuttlers, including World No.7 Kidambi Srikanth crashed out.

Sindhu the World No.3 overcame a stiff challenge from the Thai shuttler before pocketing the affair 21-15, 19-21, 21-13.

The Hyderabadi will now face Japan's Aya Ohori on Thursday.

On Thursday, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal will also be in action in the pre-quarters, where the former World No.1 will be up against Chinese Chen Yufei.

Meanwhile, in another women's singles match on Wednesday, young Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka failed to put up a fight against Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt before going down in straight games 12-21, 10-21.

In men's singles competition, former World No.1 Srikanth's campaign ended after a narrow opening-round loss. Srikanth suffered his second successive loss to in-form Japanese Kento Momota in less than a week.

Despite displaying a massive fight against Momota, Srikanth lost the issue 12-21, 21-14, 15-21 in an one hour long battle.

The script was similar in the doubles competition too, with the men's double duo of B. Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri went down to China's Zhang Nan and Liu Cheng 21-15, 15-21, 17-21.

Another Chinese pair of Huang Yaqiong and Zheng Siwei outclassed India in the mixed doubles affair as N. Sikki Reddy and Pranav Chopra suffered straight game defeats.

The Indian duo lost the issue 21-21, 14-21 in just 26 minutes.

--IANS

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