PV Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap Crash Out Of Hong Kong Open, Srikanth Advances

PV Sindhu’s jubilation of advancing into the second round of the Hong Kong Open was short-lived as the world champion was knocked out of the tournament, losing to world No.18 Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan. Parupalli Kashyap also faced a similar fate as he lost to Taiwan’s d Chou Tien Chen after putting up a great fight. It was curtains for HS Prannoy too. Kidambi Srikanth is now the only Indian alive in the tournament as he defeated compatriot Sourabh Verma to advance in the tournament.

Sindhu who has been struggling to find form for quite some time now put up a great performance as the match lasted for more than an hour. The Olympic silver medalist lost 18-21 21-11 16-21 to the Thai who is ranked 18th in the world. Prior to this game, had dominated Busanan Ongbamrungphan with 11 wins in 11 meetings so far. Sindhu has failed to leave a mark in the recent tournament after the world championships as the world number six made early exits in China, Korea and Denmark.

Earlier, Kidambi Srikant, whose BWF rankings dipped by 3 places to 13, showed glimpses of his own self to book first semi-final berth of a tournament since March 2019.  Srikanth notched up a 21-11, 15-21, 21-19 win over fellow Indian Sourabh Verma to bring an end to Sourabh’s campaign. Srikanth was last seen in action in a semifinal match in Singapore Open that was held in April this year. Srikanth will next lock horns with Olympic champion Chen Long of China.

Other then Srikanth no other Indian was able to advance into the semifinals as H.S Prannoy was knocked out after he lost 12-21, 19-21 to Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie. While, Parupalli Kashyap went down fighting 21-12 21-23 10-21 in a one hour match against Chinese Taipei Chou Tien, ranked second in the world.