Australian Open Badminton 2019: Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Sameer Verma and B Sai Praneeth bow out in second round

Sydney: Olympic and world championship silver medallist PV Sindhu made a second-round exit from the Australian Open, suffering a straight-game loss in what turned out to be a dismal day for Indian shuttlers.

Sindhu was the last to fall, following the ouster of sixth-seeded compatriots Sameer Verma, B Sai Praneeth and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

The World No 5 Sindhu, who is still looking for the first title of the season, could not get across Nitchaon Jindapol, ranked 29th, and lost 19-21 18-21 in a 49-minute match. This was her second loss to the Thailand player in seven meetings.

Earlier, World No 12 Sameer went down 16-21 21-7 13-21 to former top 10 player Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei, while Praneeth put up a brave fought in the opening game before surrendering 23-25 9-21 to second seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in a 42-minute clash.

Satwiksairaj and Chirag tried hard against second seeds Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen, before losing 19-21 18-21 in a close contest.

Sindhu was pegged back 1-5 in the first game but she recovered to grab a slender 11-9 advantage at the break. Jindapol, however, came back to erase the deficit and move to a 16-12 lead.

Sindhu battled hard till 19-19 before Jindapol closed the opening game in her favour.

The Indian revived hopes of a reversal when she led 14-11 at one stage, but Jindapol again came back strongly, ekeing out an 18-14 advantage.

Sindhu narrowed the lead to 18-19 but Jindapol soon shut the door on her rival.

The Hyderabadi shuttler’s best performance this season has been a semi-final place at the India Open Super 500 tournament.