Tokyo: In what can be termed as a sad day for India at the Japan Open, World Championship medalists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Japan Premier after suffering straight set losses against Nozomi Okuhara and Carolina Marin respectively on Thursday.
Sindhu, who had defeated Okuhara in the Korean Super Series final, was facing the local favorite for the third successive time in as many tournaments. However, she could not overcome the Japanese this time around losing 21-18, 21-18 in just 47 minutes to bow out of the tournament.
Sindhu who usually puts up a tough fight, lacked the bite as she made several unforced errors throughout the match. The long rallies which has been the highlight in their last two matches which carried on for 110 and 83 minutes respectively was lacking as the Korean Open champion lacked the fighting spirit in the entire match.
However, despite the loss the 22-year-old moved up two places to be ranked world number two in the BWF rankings, owing to her recent success in the Korean Open and the World Championships where she had clinched the silver.
On the other hand, Rio Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal lost for the second successive time to Carolina Marin, bringing down the equation to 4-4 in the head-to-head record between the two. The unseeded Saina, who had last defeated the Spanish in 2015 lasted for just 43 minutes as the world number 5 defeated her 16-21, 13-21 to progress to the quarter-final.
Their loss also ended India’s hopes in the women’s singles category in the Japan Open Super Series.
Meanwhile, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy kept India’s hopes alive in the men’s singles category. Srikanth who had earlier won the Indonesian and the Australian Open put aside Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-12, 21-11 in just 30 minutes to reach the quarter-finals while, US Open champion Prannoy got the better of Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 23-21.
Prannoy will now take on the second seed Shi Yuqi of China, while world number eight Srikanth will now face new world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Among the other Indian shuttlers in the competition, the mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost 27-29, 21-16, 12-21 to the fourth seeded Indonesian duo of Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto in a match that lasted for an hour and six minutes. They put up a tough fight before going down. Sameer Verma also ended his stay in the campaign losing 10-21, 21-17, 21-15 against the world number two Shi.