Singapore Open: Sindhu, Pranaav-Sikki pair lose as India's challenge ends

Singapore: India’s campaign at the Singapore Open Super Series ended on Thursday after ace shuttler P V Sindhu as well as men’s and mixed doubles pairs lost their respective second round matches to crash out of the tournament on Singapore. Sindhu conceded a one-game advantage to go down 21-11 14-21 14-21 to China’s He Bingjiao in a hard-fought women’s singles match that lasted 55 minutes. It was also curtains for the men’s doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar and mixed doubles duo of Pranaav and N Sikki Reddy. [caption id=“attachment_2593608” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PV Sindhu in a file photo. AFP[/caption] After going down 12-21 12-21 along with partner Akshay to second seeded Indonesian combo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in just 23 minutes, Pranaav joined Sikki in the mixed doubles but faced defeat at the hands of fourth seeds Chinese Xu Chen and Ma Jin 15-21 19-21 in a 33-minute contest. Sindhu got off to a good start, winning the opening game rather comfortably. Although it was a neck-and-neck battle till 10-10, the Indian girl simply surged ahead after the break and sealed it 21-11. Continuing the momentum, Sindhu was quick to take a 4-0 lead in the second game as well but the Chinese made a strong come back to first catch up with the Indian at 5-5 and then open up a narrow 7-6 lead. Bingjiao then bagged eight points on the trot to march ahead to 15-6, from where she just kept extending the lead to take the match to the decider. The third game saw Sindhu once again taking a slight edge but the Chinese soon caught up with her and it was a closely fought game till 14-14. Breaking away from tied 14-14, there was no looking back for Bingjiao, who then won seven straight points to wrap up the game and match in style.