Korea Open: Saina retires, losses for Sindhu and Praneeth
The Indian badminton contingent had a poor day in office in the ongoing Korea Open Super 500 tournament. Saina Nehwal became the latest casualty after retiring from her match against Kim Ga Eun. Earlier in the day, PV Sindhu and Sai Praneeth crashed out. However, men's singles player Parupalli Kashyap moved to the pre-quarterfinals. Here are the details.
Kashyap is the only Indian remaining in the fray after he defeated Lu Chia Hung of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 21-16. The senior shuttler will now face Liew Daren of Malaysia in the round of 16.
Saina was the second Indian player to retire from the tournament that saw a spate of mid-match withdrawals (Akane Yamaguchi, the top seed among them). 29-year-old Saina exited in the first round after retiring hurt 21-19, 18-21, 1-8 against Kim Ga Eun of South Korea. This was Saina's second consecutive first round exit after a poor outing in China Open as well.
BWF World Championships winner PV Sindhu suffered another early exit in the second successive week. Despite claiming the first game, Sindhu succumbed to a 21-7, 22-24, 15-21 defeat against American Beiwen Zhang. The Chinese-born American ended a three-match losing streak against the Indian ace shuttler. Meanwhile, men's singles star Sai Praneeth, who was trailing 9-21, 7-11 against fifth-seeded Anders Antonsen, withdrew from the match.
The Indians didn't have any luck in the doubles event as well. Manu Attri and B Sumeeth lost to China's Huang Kai Xiang and Liu Cheng 16-21, 21-19, 18-21. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who were up against the fourth seeds Keigo Sonoda / Takeshi Kamura, lost a thrilling encounter by a margin of 19-21, 21-18, 18-21.
