Sindhu loses to Okuhara; Srikanth, Prannoy enter quarters

TIL Desk Sports/ P V Sindhu suffered a straight-game loss to world champion Nozomi Okuhara to crash out but Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy advanced to the quarterfinals of the USD 325,000 Japan Open Super Series, here today.

Playing local favourite Okuhara for the third consecutive time, Sindhu could not bring to the fore her best game and committed too many errors to go down 18-21 8-21 in a lop-sided 47-minute contest.

The match lacked the long intense rallies, which were the hallmark of their last two contests, — the 110-minute World Championship final and last week’s 83-minute Korea Open summit clash, which Sindhu had won. Sindhu squandered a lead of 11-9 and 18-16 in the opening game and looked completely out of sorts in the second game to bow out early.

However, World No.8 Srikanth, who clinched back-to-back titles in Indonesia and Australia this year, demolished Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-12 21-11 within half an hour to make it to the final eight. The Indian will now face the recently-crowned world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.