Defending champion Kidambi Srikanth’s campaign ended with a narrow opening-round loss but Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu eked out a thrilling win to progress to the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 tournament in Jakarta today.
Former World No. 1 Srikanth suffered his second successive loss to in-form Japanese Kento Momota, ranked 11th, in two weeks. The Indian lost 21-12, 14-21, 15-21 in the opening match that lasted exactly an hour.
However, Sindhu brought some smiles back in the Indian camp after seeing off Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-15, 19-21, 21-13, setting up a clash with Japan’s Aya Ohori tomorrow.
Earlier, young Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka went down 12-21, 10-21 to Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt.
The men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy stretched the world no 2 Chinese pair of Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan to three games before surrendering 21-15, 15-21, 17-21 to the third seeded combo.
In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost 12-21, 14-21 to fourth seeded pair of Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong of China.