New Delhi: P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth notched up contrasting wins to progress to the pre-quarterfinals but world no. 11 H.S. Prannoy suffered a shock defeat at the World Championship in Nanjing, China, on Wednesday.
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who had got a bye in the first round, opened her campaign with an easy 21-14, 21-9 win over Indonesia’s Fitriani.
The 23-year-old Indian, who won the silver medal last year, will face Korean Sung Ji Hyun, a 2015 World Championship bronze medallist, in the next round. Srikanth, seeded fifth, recovered from a slump to see off Spain’s Pablo Abian 21-15, 12-21, 21-14 in a second-round match that lasted 62 minutes. The 25-year-old next faces Malaysia’s Daren Liew.
B. Sai Praneeth also entered the next round after defeating Spain’s Luís Enrique Penalver 21-18, 21-11 to set up a meeting with Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.
However, Prannoy and Sameer Verma bowed out of the tournament. Prannoy, seeded 11th, couldn’t hold on to the momentum after breezing through the opening game to lose 21-8, 16-21, 15-21 to Coelho, ranked 39th in the world.
Later, Sameer failed to get across former two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan, losing 17-21, 14-21 in a 45-minute match.
It also turned out to be a disastrous day for the Indian doubles pairs as all of them lost their matches.
Commonwealth Games silver medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost 18-21, 21-15, 16-21 to world no. 8 Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in men’s doubles. Ashwini Ponnapa and N. Sikki Reddy were no match for second seeded Japanese combination of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota, going down 14-21, 15-21 in the second round women’s doubles event.
National champions Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy waged a gallant battle before losing 24-22, 13-21, 16-21 to seventh seed Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko of Japan in men’s doubles.
Axelsen, Okuhara keep title defences on track Viktor Axelsen and Nozomi Okuhara stormed into the third round to stay on course for back-to-back men’s and women’s titles.
Denmark’s Axelsen, the top seed and men’s world number one, subdued the spirited unseeded Chinese Huang Yuxiang 21-17, 21-8.
Women’s eighth seed Okuhara of Japan made shorter work of unseeded Rachel Honderich, sending the 22-year-old Canadian packing 21-11, 21-9 in just 28 minutes.
Men’s number three seed Shi Yuqi defeated England’s Rajiv Ouseph 21-18, 21-9 and Olympic champion Chen Long dispatched Khosit Phetpradab of Thailand, 21-16, 21-11.
