PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy advance, Saina Nehwal, Sameer Verma out

Hong Kong World Champion P V Sindhu made a positive start to her campaign but Saina Nehwal and Sameer Verma were ousted from the Hong Kong Open after suffering contrasting defeats in the opening round of the USD 400000 event here on Wednesday Sixth seed Sindhu who had faltered in the opening round in a couple of recent tournaments took 36 minutes to see off world no 19 Kim Ga Eun of Korea 2115 2116 to progress to the second roundThe Olympic silver medallist will face Thailands Busanan Ongbamrungphan next HS Prannoy also crossed the opening hurdle beating Chinas Huang Yu Xiang 2117 2117 in 44 minutes to a clash with sixth seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie Joining Prannoy in the second round are Parupalli Kashyap Kidambi Srikanth and qualifier Sourav VermaWhile Kashyap defeated Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 2118 1621 2110 Sourav got the better of Frances Brice Leverdez 2111 2115 Pitted against top seed Kento Momota Srikanth got a walkover over the Japanese Srikanth will take on compatriot Sourabh in the second round Kashyap though has a tough second round encounter as he is up against second seed Chou Tien Chen of TaipeiBut it was curtains for eighth seed Saina who claimed the Indonesia Masters in January this year as she suffered her fifth firstround loss in the last six tournaments going down 1321 2022 to Chinas Cai Yan Yan in the womens singles for the second successive time She had lost to Cai at China Open last week World no16 Sameer fought for 54 minutes before going to Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei 1121 2113 821 in the opening match It was his third successive loss in the opening roundSaina and Sameer are both scheduled to play Gwangju Korea Masters Super 300 tournament next week Womens doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also couldnt cross the opening round losing 1321 1221 to Denarks Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen Mens doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also bowed out in the opening round losing 2117 1621 1721 against Japanese pair of Takuro Hoki Yugo KobayashiWorld No 6 Sindhu moved to a 84 lead early on but Kim managed to turn the tables holding a 1110 advantage at the breather The Indian then reeled off six points at 1313 to march ahead and seal the opening game The second game was no different as Sindhu again broke off at 55 grabbing seven points on the trot to move to a massive 125 lead The Indian kept moving ahead and eventually shut the door comfortably on her opponentEarlier Saina lacked the wherewithal to put up a fight against Cai in the opening game and fell behind from the very start She couldnt catch up with the Chinese who moved to a comfortable 114 lead at the break and kept surging ahead to win the first game In the second game Saina was 30 up initially but Cai reeled off seven straight points at 24 to jump to a 94 advantage The Indian narrowed the gap but Cai was ahead 119 at the breatherAfter the interval the Chinese jumped to a 1711 advantage However Saina managed to fight back and grab a game point at 2019 but the Chinese once again managed to nose ahead Sameer on the other hand managed to take one game away from the world no26 Wang after meekly surrendering the opening game Wang was 74 up and then surged to 155 in a jiffy to eventually close the opening gameIn the second game Wang led 30 early on but this time Sameer put up a fierce fight to open up a slender 1110 lead which he capitalised to roar back into the contest However Sameer was completely blown away by Wang in the decider The Taiwanese shuttler zoomed to an 80 lead and then grabbed a 152 advantage a gap which the Indian failed to bridge in the endCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereAlso download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever