Tokyo, Sept 21:
Olympics medallists P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal crashed out of the USD 325,000 Japan Open Super Series after suffering straight-game defeats in second round here today.
However, Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s singles.
Playing local favourite and world champion Nozomi Okuhara for the third consecutive time, Sindhu could not bring to the fore her best game and committed too many errors to go down 18-21 8-21 in a lop-sided 47-minute contest.
The match lacked the long intense rallies, which were the hallmark of their last two contests — the 110-minute World Championship final and last week’s 83-minute Korea Open summit clash, which Sindhu had won.
Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu squandered a lead of 11-9 and 18-16 in the opening game and looked completely out of sorts in the second game to bow out early.
London Games bronze medallist Saina too squandered a 14- 10 lead in the opening game and a 6-4 advantage in the second to go down 16-21 13-21 to Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain, seeded fifth.
However, World No.8 Srikanth, who clinched back-to-back titles in Indonesia and Australia this year, demolished Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-12 21-11 within half an hour to make it to the final eight.
The Indian will now face the recently-crowned world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Currently locked 2-2 in the head-to-head record, Srikanth had initial success against Viktor but the Dane had an upper hand in the last two meetings, winning in straight games.
“It was a good match. He can be very dangerous if you give him a chance, so I wanted to play very consistent,” said Srikanth.
US Open champion Prannoy managed to upstage Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao 21-16 23-21. He will now play against second seed Chinese Shi Yuqi.
World No. 2 Shi, who had reached the finals of All England Championship early this year, staved off a challenge from Syed Modi International winner Sameer Verma 10-21 21-17 21-15 in another match. (PTI)
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