Sindhu advances, Saina bows out of Hong Kong Open

Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu advanced while Saina Nehwal and H.S Prannoy bowed out of the Hong Kong Open Superseries on Thursday.

Sindhu defeated Aya Ohori of Japan 21-14, 21-17 in 39 minutes to enter the third round.

Right from the start, Sindhu looked lethal and played aggressively to outplay her opponent in straight games. She will now take on fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the next round.

In another match, eighth seed Chen Yufei of China edged past Saina 18-21, 21-19, 21-10 in a marathon match which lasted an hour.

After winning the first game, Saina could not step up the pressure and was beaten by the Chinese shuttler in the next two games.

In the men's singles, Kazumasa Sakai defeated Prannoy 11-21, 21-10, 21-15 in 54 minutes.

In the first game, the Indian shuttler was at his best. But the next two games saw a sudden downfall. Prannoy failed to match the pace of his opponent, leading to his defeat.

--IANS

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