China Open: World Champion PV Sindhu crashes out

TIL Desk Sports/ Reigning world champion PV Sindhu made an early exit from the China Open but B Sai Praneeth kept the Indian flag fluttering with a hard-fought straight-game win to reach the men’s singles quarterfinals at Changzhou on Thursday.

Sindhu, an Olympic silver medallist, squandered a first-game advantage to go down 12-21 21-13 21-19 to Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in a women’s singles pre-quarterfinals that lasted 58 minutes here.

Praneeth, who had claimed a bronze medal at Basel, edged out China’s Lu Guang Zu 21-19 21-19 to set up a meeting against Indonesian seventh seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. Ginting beat India’s Parupalli Kashyap 23-21 15-21 21-12 in a thrilling contest.