Singapore Open: India’s campaign ends with Srikanth’s round of 16 loss

Kallang (Singapore), June 8 (IANS) India’s campaign at the Singapore Open Super 750 badminton tournament came to an end after Kidambi Srikanth lost his Round of 16 men’s singles match against Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei, here on Thursday.

World no 23 Srikanth, who defeated Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen in the first round, suffered 15-21, 19-21 straight games loss at the hands of the world no 42 Taipei shuttler, in what was the pair’s first meeting.

Earlier in the day, young singles’ player Priyanshu Rajawat and the doubles duo of M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila crashed out after their respective second round losses.

Rajawat, who caused a big upset by beating World No.15 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the opening round, went down to another Japanese, Kodai Naraoka in straight games at the Singapore Indoor Stadium 1. The 21-year-old Indian lost 17-21, 16-21 to Naraoka in a 47-minute encounter in the BWF World Tour Super 750 event.

The doubles combine of Arjun and Dhruv were ousted by England’s experienced Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 15-21, 19-21 at Singapore Indoor Stadium.

India’s top singles players — two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu, Malaysia Masters winner H.S. Prannoy, former World Championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen and London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal — had crashed out in the first round itself.

On Wednesday, the top doubles pairs, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, ranked 11th in the world in the latest list, and Commonwealth women’s doubles bronze medallists, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were ousted in the first round.

Satwik and Chirag, seeded fifth in his event, went down to Japan’s Akira Koga and Taichi Saito in three games, 18-21, 21-14, 18-21 in just over an hour.

Treesa and Gayatri also put up a tough fight but could not get the better of Hong Kong’s Ting Yeung Nga and Lam Yeung Pui, 14-21, 21-18, 19-21 in a 66-minute encounter. -IANS