PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth, two of India’s top shuttlers, were eliminated from the Korea Open, a Super 500 badminton competition, on Wednesday after losing their respective opening-round matches.
PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, lost her opening match for new coach Muhammad Hafiz Hashim in the women’s singles to Pai Yu Po of China 18-21, 21-10, and 13-21. The appointment of the Malaysian coach was formally made public on Tuesday.
In 12 BWF World Tour tournament outings this season, Sindhu had been eliminated in the first round six times.
Former world number one Srikanth lost the men’s singles match to Japan’s Kento Momota in a gruelling three-set match 21-12, 22-24, 17-21. His countryman HS Prannoy defeated Belgian Julien Carraggi 21-13, 21-17 to advance to the next round, where he will face Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu.
Kiran George, on the other hand, was defeated by Chinese Taipei shuttler Wang Tzu Wei 17-21, 9-21. Mithun Manjunath lost to Malaysian Ng Tze Yong 11-21, 4-21 as well.
In the mixed doubles, Alvin Morada and Alyssa Ysabel Leonardo of the Philippines were defeated by Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy 21-17, 21-17, and advanced to the second round. The fourth seeded Chinese team of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping will be Rohan and Sikki’s opponent after them.
Another mixed pair, B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa bowed out after a 21-23, 21-13, 12-21 loss to the Korean pair of Song Hyun Cho and Lee Jung Hyun. Tuesday’s men’s doubles first round match was won by Satwik and Chirag, while Treesa and Gayatri were given a walkover.