Badminton News: PV Sindhu crashes out; Kidambi Srikanth, Sameer Verma enter quarters

Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out after losing 24-26, 20-22 to Korean qualifier Sung Ji Hyun in pre quarters of Hong Kong Open. She hasn’t won any tournament this year and World Tour finals in December will be her last hope in 2018 now. In men’s singles Kidambi Srikanth defeated his compatriot H.S Prannoy in an all-Indian men's singles clash to enter the quarter-final. In a marathon match of an hour and seven minutes, the fourth seed Srikanth edged past Prannoy 18-21, 30-29, 21-18. After losing the first game, Srikanth bounced back in the second game in a hard-fought battle. The third game saw another intense battle between the two but Srikanth proved much better towards the end and wrapped up the issue. Other Indian Sameer Verma also advanced as he got a walkover from his fifth seed Chinese opponent Chen Long. In mixed doubles category, Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa crashed out of the meet losing to Lee Yang and Hsu of Chinese Taipei. The Chinese Taipei duo defeated the Indian pair 21-17, 21-11 in just 37 minutes of play.