Indonesia Open: PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth knocked out in first round

Jakarta (Indonesia), June 14 (IANS): Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth were knocked out in the first round of Indonesia Open 2022 BWF Super1000 tournament after losing their respective singles matches at the Istora Stadium, here on Tuesday.

Sindhu, the world No 7 in the latest badminton rankings, lost 14-21, 18-21 to China’s He Bing Jiao, who improved her head-to-head record to 10-8 against the former world champion.

World No 9 Jiao started the match better and raced to a 9-2 lead as Sindhu seemed slow off the blocks in the opening exchanges. However, the Indian shuttler, who had defeated Jiao to win the Tokyo Olympics bronze medal last year, came back into the contest and managed to reduce the deficit to 14-12 after prevailing in some closely-fought rallies.

The fightback, though, came a bit too late as Jiao upped the ante and won the first game 21-14. The change of sides in the second game brought Sindhu little joy as Jiao, once again, dominated the early exchanges and took a four-point advantage at the break.

The 26-year old Sindhu tried hard to get back into the match after the restart and while she did come up with some scorching winners, a bunch of unforced errors cost her as the Chinese shuttler wrapped up the match in 47 minutes.

Notably, Sindhu was the only Indian women’s singles player at the Indonesia Open.

In the men’s singles, B Sai Praneeth, the world No. 19, was also shown the door early by Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus.

The world No 21 Dane made easy work of Praneeth in the opening game before overcoming a much sterner challenge in the second. Vittinghus won the match 21-16, 21-19 in 45 minutes.

Other Indian shuttlers — Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen will start their campaign on Wednesday.