China Open Superseries: Saina Nehwal, HS Prannoy crash out in 2nd round
Fuzhou: Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy crashed out of China Open Superseries on Thursday after failing to win their respective Round of 16 matches. World no 11 Saina’s struggle against World no 4 Akane Yamaguchi continued as she lost to Japanese opponent 18-21, 11-21. World no 11 HS Prannoy also suffered defeat after going down to Lee Cheuk Yik 19-21,17-21.
Saina who started the game really well failed to impose her authority on the opponent, as Akane took complete control of the game and never allowed Saina to make a comeback into the match. Saina made all the running in the first game as she raced to a 3-1 lead, Yamaguchi fought her way back to reduce the deficit to one point.
The Indian shuttler, however, managed to take an 11-9 lead at the interval. After the interval, World no 4 Yamaguchi came back with a bang as Saina struggle to read her deceptions. It was a closely fought contest between the two before the Japanese took the game 21-18.
In the second game, Yamaguchi used her deception to deadly effect as Saina struggled to find her feet. The Japanese controlled the game right from the first point to take an 11-8 lead at the interval. After the break, it was one-way traffic as the world no 4 stretched her lead and finally wrapped up the game and the match 21-11.
The world no 11 HS Prannoy who was stretched to three games by Korea's Dong Keun Lee on Wednesday did not have anything left in the tank as he went down fighting to World no 53 Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yik.
The game started with both shuttlers exchanging quick points between them before Lee took a two-point lead over Prannoy. The Indian tried to stage comeback b, but Lee took an 11-9 lead at the interval. After the break, Prannoy tried to changed gear as he fought hard to gain one point lead. The momentum kept on swinging between the two but Lee prevailed over Prannoy to take the first game 21-19.
In the second game, Prannoy staged a comeback to take a slender one-point lead (11-10), but Lee came back strong after the break as the Indian National Champion looked tired. The world number 53 finally went onto to win the game 21-17.
PV Sindhu is the lone Indian shuttler left in the tournament and the Olympic Silver medalist will look to go far ahead in the tournament.
