Badminton: Indian challenge ends as Sindhu, Srikanth are beaten
Indian challenge at the German Open ended as top seeds PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the competition in quarter final and pre-quarter final matches respectively. 7th seed Sindhu, lone Indian in Women's Singles, lost 16-21, 18-21 to 4th seed Chinese Wang Shixian. Meanwhile, Srikanth lost 21-18, 18-21, 18-21 to NG Ka Long Angus of Hong kong in the Men's Singles event.
German Open is an annual badminton tournament held in Germany since 1955. It is organized by German Badminton Association or Deutscher Badminton Verband (DBV). The tournament is now a part of BWF (Badminton World Federation) Grand Prix Gold event. German Open 2016 was scheduled from 1-6 March in Mulheim an der Ruhr, Germany. The 2016 tournament has a total prize money of $ 120,000.
BWF Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix is a series of badminton tournaments, sanctioned by BWF since 2007. A Grand Prix Gold tournament offers minimum prize money of $120,000 and a Grand Prix tournament offers minimum prize money of $50,000.
The German Grand Prix Gold 2016 event saw the participation of few Indian shuttlers. With Saina Nehwal missing the event due to fitness issues, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth spearheaded the Indian challenge. Doubles pair Ashwini Ponnapaa-Jwala Gutta, Men's Singles players Ajay Jayaram, Praneeth and Prannoy were missing from action. The tournament saw Parupalli Kashyap make a comeback from injuries.
Other Indian players who participated in the German Open include young Sameer Verma who lost in the second round, Kaushal Dharmamer who lost in the first round and Men's doubles pair Manu Attri and BS Reddy who lost in the second round.
With just eight weeks left for Rio qualification, Parupalli Kashyap looks to seal his Olympic berth at the German Open. Once the world No.8, Kashyap now slipped to 17, owing to injuries. Kashyap needs to do well in the international events to fetch crucial qualifying points before the May 1 cut off date, by which he has to be in the top-16 to qualify.
Parupalli Kashyap retired hurt midway through the German Open pre-quarter finals, dealing a fresh blow to his Olympic qualification hopes. The Commonwealth Games champion suffered a knee injury during his clash against 8th seed Son Wan Ho of Korea and had to retire midway with the score reading 12-21, 11-16. The extent of his injury and the time for recovery was not clear.
