Hong Kong Open Super 500 tournament: Line Christophersen makes PV Sindhu crumble

Indiarsquos twotime Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu bowed out while HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen earned hardfought wins to advance in the Hong Kong Open Super 500 tournament here on WednesdaySindhu who had reached the BWF World Championships quarterfinals last month lost the womenrsquos singles roundof32 contest 2115 1621 1921 to unseeded Danish shuttler Line ChristophersenDenmarkrsquos Line ChristophersenHowever Prannoy ranked 34th in the world humbled 14th ranked Lu Guang Zu of China 2117 2114 in 44 minutes while Sen got his campaign going with a gruelling 2220 1621 2115 win to secure their places in the menrsquos singles prequarterfinalsKiran Ayush progressKiran George also secured a place in the menrsquos singles last16 getting the better of Singaporersquos higherranked Jia Heng Jason Teh 2116 2111 in 34 minutesWorld No 31 Ayush Shetty overcame a stiff challenge from lowerranked ChineseTaipei shuttler Su Li Yang 1521 2119 2113 in slightly over an hour to secure a place in the last16 in menrsquos singlesFor Sindhu this was her first loss to the 25yearold Christophersen in six outings coming at a time when the Indian star was beginning to rediscover her form after early exits at the Swiss Open and Japan Open earlier this yearSindhu took an early 31 lead in the first game before her opponent equalised 5all Leading 1413 Sindhu upped her game allowing Christophersen just one point before taking the opener The second game saw the Indian leading 1312 before errors cropped up in her game as she gave away five points on the trotThrilling encounterThe decider was a battle of nerves with both players going neck and neck till 19all before two decisive points for Christophersen ended Sindhursquos campaignThe womenrsquos doubles pair of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda won their roundof32 match against Hong Kongrsquos Oi Ki Vanessa Pang and Sum Yau Wong 1721 921 in just 28 minutes while the Chinese Taipei duo of Chen Cheng Kuan and Hsu YinHui got the better of Dhruv Kapil and Tanisha Crasto 1621 1121 in 31 minutesIndiarsquos Rakshitha Ramraj will play her roundof32 singles match against fifthseeded former world champion from Thailand Ratchanok Intanon while the mixed doubles duo of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde will take on the secondseeded Chinese pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong PingGood start for SatChiOn Tuesday Indiarsquos top menrsquos doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had overcame Taiwanrsquos Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang ChiLin in their opening roundThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever