China Open 2019: Sai Praneeth moves into quarter finals, others crash out

It was a disappointing day for the Indian contingent as the World Championship PV Sindhu crashed out in the 2^nd round of Super 1000 China Open played at Changzhou on Thursday. Sai Praneeth was the only to move into the quarterfinals.

In the men’s singles, Sai Praneeth defeated Lu Gz of China in two straight games at 21-19, 21-19. It was a decent performance by bronze medallists from 2019 World Championship. The Indian showed great fighting spirit and proved his worth with aggressive stroke play not allowing the Chinese to play his natural game. He will take on Anthony Ginting of Indonesia.

Parupali Kashyap lost to Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting in two straight sets by 21-23, 21-15, 12-21 to be knocked out. The 1^st game was closely fought game but Ginting held his nerves to win the 1^st set. Kashyap produced a dominating display to win the 2^nd set and force the match into the decider. In deciding game, Ginting raised his game and won deciding game.

The World Championship PV Sindhu suffered a shock loss to Pornpwee Chochuwong of Thailand in three games by 21-12, 13-21, 19-21. Sindhu made an aggressive start to the 1^st game taking an early 7-1 lead. The Thai player fought back strongly, but the Indian had a slender 11-10 lead at the interval. After the interval, the World Championship played with aggression and took eight points in succession to take 19-10. Sindhu won the 1^st set easily at 21-12.

Pornpawee made a strong comeback in the 2^nd game and took an early 5-1 lead. Sindhu fought back strongly to reduce the gap to 7-9. The Thai player continued to show her aggression and won the 2^nd set easily at 21-13.

In the deciding game, both players fought for each point until 6-6. Sindhu played with aggression and took an 11- 7 lead at the interval. The Thai player kept the Indian pushing and had reduced the gap to 15-19. Pornpwaee took 6 points in succession and won the 3^rd set at 21-19 which left Sindhu shocked.

It was disappointing for Satwiksairaj RankiReddy lost in both men’s doubles and mixed doubles. In the men’s doubles, RankiReddy and Chirag Shetty was outplayed by Japanese pair of Sonoda and Kamura in two straight games at 19-21, 8-21. The Indian pair 0fought brilliantly in the 1^st game but was outplayed in 2^nd game to be knocked out.

The mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and RankiReddy lost to Kaneko and Matsutomo in three sets by 11-21, 21-16, 12-21.

The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy were knocked out in the 2^nd round losing to Olympic Champion Matsutomo and Takahashi in two straight sets at 10-21, 17-21.

Sai Praneeth moves lonely Indian to move into QF