Korea Open: HS Prannoy, Rajawat in second round, bad form of Sindhu and Srikanth continues

Yeosu. In-form HS Prannoy on Wednesday entered the second round of the Korea Open Super 500 tournament but PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth’s poor run of form continued as both made first round exits here on Wednesday. Fifth seed Prannoy registered a 21-13 21-17 win over Belgium’s Julien Karagy. Prannoy, the only Indian singles player in the Elite Top 10, will now face the winner of the match between Lee Yun Gyu and Lee Cheuk Yiu. Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu’s dismal performance continued. She crashed out of the tournament after losing 18-21 21-10 13-21 to world No. 22 Pei Yu-po of Chinese Taipei in a hard-fought three-game match in the first round.

Sindhu, who slipped to world No. 17 this week, lost the match in 58 minutes. And Srikanth lost the match in the second game after losing a match point. He was defeated by former number one Kento Momota of Japan 21-12 22-24 17-21. It was Srikanth’s 12th consecutive defeat and 15th overall against the two-time world champion. India’s Priyanshu Rajawat, however, advanced to the second round. He beat local player Choi Ji Hoon in straight games in men’s singles. Orleans Masters winner Rajawat, world number 32, beat Choi 21-15 21-19 in 42 minutes. He will next face top seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan. The mixed doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor, who won the Victor Denmark Masters International Challenge title in June, advanced to the second round with a straight-game 21-17 21-17 win over the Filipino pair of Alvin Morada and Alyssa Isabel Leonardo. Have made a place. The Indian pair will take on fourth seeded Chinese pair of Feng Yan Xie and Huang Dong Ping in the next round.

Kiran George, however, could not cross the first round hurdle, going down 17-21 9-21 to world number 29 Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei. Aakarshi Kashyap, Tasnim Mir, Mithun Manjunath and Ashmita Chaliha also suffered first-round defeats, showing the vast gap between the top players and their level. Aakarshi went down 12-21 17-21 to world No. 20 Zheng Yi Man of China while Tasneem lost 11-21 18-21 to world No. 19 Kim Ga Yun of Korea.

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National champion Manjunath had no answer for world number 23 Ng Jae Yong of Malaysia. The Malaysian player won 21-11 21-4 in a one-sided contest. Ashmita also went down in straight games 13-21 12-21 against Olympic champion Chen Yui Fei. B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa went down 23-21 13-21 21-12 to Korean pair of Song Hyun Cho and Lee Jung Hyun in the mixed doubles first round. The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, including the World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500 and 11 Super 300 level tournaments. Another category is the BWF Tour Super 100 level which awards ranking points.