Tokyo: Ace Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy crashed out of the Japan Open after suffering straight game losses in the quarter-finals of the men’s singles category on Friday. However, the mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy progressed to the semi-finals, keeping the Indian hopes alive.
The Indonesian and Australian Open champion Srikanth lasted for just 40 minutes before losing 17-21, 17-21 to the world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. With this loss, Srikanth has now failed to beat Viktor in their last three encounters, having earlier defeated him twice.
The world number eight made several unforced errors and also squandered two big leads in the match to lose the battle against the third seeded Dane. In the opening set, Srikanth had taken a healthy lead of 16-13 but Axelsen made a good comeback to win the set 17-21.
A similar thing followed in the second set, when the 25-year-old gave up his lead of 9-6, to lose the match 17-21 again. Srikanth who is usually swift in the court, failed to read the movement of his opponent.
US champion HS Prannoy also lost his battle against Shi Yuqi of Chinese Taipei 15-21, 14-21 in straight sets in a game that lasted just 45 minutes. Shi dominated the match completely as Prannoy found it hard to get going. In the opening set, the world number two Shi raced to the match point quickly, wrapping things up in a hurry.
Prannoy had previously registered straight-game wins over Anders Antonsen and Hsu Jen Hao to reach the quarter-finals. But had no answer for Shi’s game.
Meanwhile, Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold champions Pranaav and Sikki defeated Korea’s Seung Jae Seo and Kim Ha Na 21-18 9-21 21-19 to set up a clash with Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Sayaka Hirota in the next round.