Defending champion B Sai Praneeth crashed out of the Singapore Open after suffering a narrow three-game defeat against Japan's Yu Igarashi in the opening round of men's singles competition here yesterday. Sixth seed Praneeth, who has been out of form of late, went down 21-16 16-21 18-21 to Igarashi in a match that lasted an hour and 11 minutes.

Meanwhile, Sourabh Verma, Subhankar Dey, Ruthvika Shivani Gadde and former national champion Rituparna Das advanced to the second round after notching up contrasting wins in the opening round. While Subhankar saw off Canada's Jason Anthony Ho-Shue 14-21 21-14 21-16, Ruthvika prevailed over Bulgaria's Linda Zetchiri 21-15 17-21 21-16 and Rituparna emerged victories with Switzerland's Sabrina Jaquet retiring after trailing 3-5 in the opening game. Former CWG champion Parupalli Kashyap suffered a back strain in the training session yesterday but the Indian had to take the court against compatriot Sourabh since according to BWF rules a player can't retire or give walkover against a fellow countrymen.