Shuttlers exit early in Japan
The Indian challenge ended at the Japan Open Super Series badminton here after Ajay Jayaram and PV Sindhu both lost their respective second round matches on Thursday.
In women’s singles, Sindhu, who reached her career-high ranking of 20 on Thurday, went down to South Korean fourth seed Yeon Ju Bae 21-10, 12-21, 18-21 in 52 minutes at the Yoyogi National Stadium.
Jayaram lost to Malaysia’s Wei Feng Chong 16-21, 16-21.
Sindhu beat local girl Kaori Imabeppu 21-18, 17-21, 21-13 while Jayaram powered past Singaporean Zi Liang Derek Wong 21-14, 21-14 in the first round matches on Wednesday.
In other matches on Wednesday, RMV Guru Sai Dutt went down to fourth seed Sho Sasaki of Japan 18-21, 15-21. Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia packed off Parupalli Kashyap 21-18, 21-18. World No 2 Lee Chong Wei got rid of Anand Pawar 21-13, 21-9 while B Sai Praneeth went down to Malaysia’s Daren Liew 21-17, 15-21, 20-22.
Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu lost to Japan’s Naoki Kawamae and Shoji Sato 16-21, 24-26. Malaysians Thien How Hoon and Wee Kiong Tan eased past Pranav Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar 21-16, 21-13. In mixed doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun Kona went down to the local pair of Noriyasu Hirata and Miyuki Maeda 18-21, 19-21.
