Korea Open: Kashyap the sole Indian winner as Sindhu, Saina, Praneeth and doubles pairs bow out

Parupalli Kashyap made his way to the pre-quarterfinals in the men’s single event of the Korea Open on Wednesday but he was the sole Indian shuttler to finish on the winning side on a day to forget in Incheon.

Kashyap, now the only Indian remaining in the fray, defeated Lu Chia Hung of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 21-16 and will now face Liew Daren of Malaysia in the round of 16.

The biggest upset of the day saw PV Sindhu get knocked out in the round of 32. The reigning world champion suffered a 21-7, 22-24, 15-21 defeat against American Beiwen Zhang.

It was a tough loss for Sindhu as she had a match point in the second game. But Zhang hung in their and closed out the match comfortably eventually. The Chinese-born American snapped a three-match losing streak against the Indian.

This was a second successive early exit for Sindhu. The 24-year-old Olympic silver-medallist was knocked out of the China Open Super 1000 event by Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in the second round last week.

Another world championship medallist, B Sai Praneeth bowed out too after retiring in his men’s singles opener. The Indian was trailing 9-21 7-11 when he conceded the match to fifth-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark due to an unspecified injury.

Following Praneeth, Saina Nehwal was the second Indian player to retire from the tournament on Wednesday that saw a spate of mid-match withdrawals (Akane Yamaguchi, the top seed among them). Nehwal, the 29-year-old former No 1, exited in the first round after retiring hurt 21-19, 18-21, 1-8 against Kim Ga Eun of South Korea. This was her second consecutive first round exit after losing in the round of 32 last week in China as well.

In the men’s doubles competition, India’s Manu Attri and B Sumeeth lost to China’s Huang Kai Xiang and Liu Cheng 16-21, 21-19, 18-21.

The day, rather fittingly, ended on a losing note for the Indian contingent. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were up against the fourth seeds Keigo Sonoda / Takeshi Kamura from Japan. The Indians fought back brilliantly after losing the first game and were leading 11-10 in the decider but the Japanese prevailed in the end. The No 4 seeds pulled away at the end of the decider to win 21-19, 18-21, 21-18 and knock out the Indian pair for the second time in two weeks.

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