Sindhu out, others advance in Japan Open

Eighth seed P.V. Sindhu lost her second round tie while H.S. Prannoy, K. Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram advanced to the quarterfinals of the $200,000 Japan Open Super Series here Thursday.

Sindhu had a poor outing against Japanese qualifier Akane Yamaguchi as she was beaten in straight games in 32 minutes at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The World No.145 beat Sindhu 21-6, 21-17 to move into the women's singles quarterfinals.

Jayaram had a tough second round men's singles outing against local qualifier Yuichi Ikeda but eventually won in three games in a 55 minute battle. The Mumbai lad won 21-13, 11-21, 21-18 in his first ever match against Ikeda.

Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold champion K. Srikanth also entered the last eight easily overcoming another local qualifier Kazuteru Kozai 21-12, 21-16 in 32 minutes in their first ever encounter and will take on Japanese seventh seed and World No.5 Kenichi Tago next in their first ever meet.

Youth Olympics silver medallist Prannoy caused an upset by beating World No.6 Danish shuttler Jan O Jorgensen in three tough games. The Kerala shuttler came out victorious 21-14, 13-21, 21-17 in 53 minutes to enter the last eight.

However, the Indian men's doubles action also came to an end with the defeat of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy, who lost to Xiaolong Liu and Zihan Qiu of China. The fourth-seeded Chinese won 21-17, 21-16 in 36 minutes in the second round.