Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu’s dismal run continued as she crashed out of the Korea Open Super 500 tournament with a hard-fought three-game first-round defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Pei Yu-Po here on Wednesday. Gone. Sindhu, who slipped to world No. 17 this week, went down against world No. 22 Pei Yu-Po 18-21 21-10 13-21 in the first round of women’s singles. This match lasted 58 minutes. 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 lost 12-21 17-21 to world number 20 Zheng Yi Man of China while Tasneem lost 11-21 18-21 to world number 19 Kim Ga Yun of Korea. Fell
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.
