Korea Open: HS Prannoy advances to second round; Kidambi Srikanth loses

NEW DELHI: Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy on Wednesday showcased excellent form and advanced to the second round of the Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament in Yeosu, Korea. However, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth faced continued inconsistency and were eliminated in the opening round.
Prannoy, seeded fifth and the sole Indian singles player in the top 10 rankings, secured a convincing 21-13, 21-17 victory over Julien Carraggi of Belgium.In the next round, the 31-year-old will face either Lee Yun Gyu or Lee Cheuk Yiu.
On the other hand, Sindhu, who dropped to the 17th rank in the world this week, suffered a defeat in the women's singles opening round. She lost to Pai Yu-Po of Chinese Taipei, ranked 22nd in the world, with a score of 18-21, 21-10, 13-21. The match lasted for 58 minutes.
Srikanth also faced disappointment as he relinquished a match point advantage in the second game, resulting in a 21-12, 22-24, 17-21 loss to former world number one Kento Momota from Japan.
This defeat marked Srikanth's 15th loss and 12th consecutive defeat against the two-time world champion, who is currently ranked 53rd in the world due to a period of struggling form.

However, there was some positive news for India as Priyanshu Rajawat advanced to the second round in the men's singles competition.
Ranked 32nd in the world and the winner of the Orleans Masters, Rajawat triumphed in straight games with a score of 21-15, 21-19 against local player Choi Ji Hoon. Rajawat will now face top-seeded Kodai Naraoka of Japan in the next round.
The mixed pair of N Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor, who had won the Victor Denmark Masters international challenge in June, made it to the second round with a 21-17 21-17 win over Philippines' Alvin Morada and Alyssa Ysabel Leonardo.
The Indian duo will face Chinese fourth seeds Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping next.
Kiran George, however, failed to cross the opening round hurdle, going down to Chinese Taipei's world number 29 Wang Tzu Wei 17-21 9-21 in another men's singles match.
Aakarshi Kashyap, Tasnim Mir, Tanya Hemanth, Mithun Manjunath and Ashmita Chaliha -- all were ousted from the tournament in the first round, underlining the huge gulf in quality in the second batch of Indian shuttlers.
While Kashyap lost 12-21 17-21 to China's world number 20 Zhang Yi Man, Mir went down 11-21 18-21 to Korea's world No. 19 Kim Ga Eun and Tanya lost 11-21 17-21 to world No. 32 Saena Kawakami from Japan.
National champion Mithun was no match for Malaysia's world number 23 Ng Tze Yong and Ashmita lost to Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei 13-21 12-21.
B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa too suffered a 21-23 21-13 12-21 loss to Korean pair of Song hyun Cho and Lee Jung Hyun in their mixed doubles opening round.

Sindhu came into the match with a 4-1 lead against Pai but she couldn't curb her errors to go down in the end.
A horrible start, mainly due to Sindhu's unforced errors, saw her fall behind 2-9 at the start of the opening game.
The Indian either sprayed the shuttle at net or hit long to hand over a huge 11-5 advantage to the Taiwanese, who managed to hold on to her lead despite a desperate fightback from Sindhu following an interval.
After the change of sides, it was a different Sindhu as she came out all guns blazing, zooming to 9-1 to eventually roar back into the contest with a commanding show.
The decider turned into a thrilling contest as the duo engaged in some good rallies to move neck and neck till 9-9, after Sindhu blew a 4-1 lead.
A net error meant Pai took a slender two-point lead at the interval. However, things changed thereafter with Sindhu's game crumbling once again as she kept hitting wide and long, allowing Pai to extend the lead to 18-12.
Sindhu's smash and lift went out as she ended the match with another net error as Pai recorded only her second win over the Indian in six meetings.
The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300.
One other category of the tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points.
(With PTI inputs)