Sindhu stunned by Okuhara in Japan Open pre-quarters

Tokyo [Japan], Sept 21 (ANI): In a major blow to the Indian fans, Rio-Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu knocked out of the Japan Open Super Series after going down in straight games against Nozomi Okuhara in the second round here on Thursday.

The fourth-seeded, who recently took avenge of her World Championship final defeat to Okuhara by beating her in the summit showdown of the Korea Open, once again lost to her Japanese opponent 18-21, 8-21 in a 47-minute prequarter-final clash of the women's singles event.

Earlier, Sindhu had produced a spirited performance as she rebounded strongly from a game down against Japan's Minatsu Mitani to register a 12-21, 21-15, 21-17 win and progress through to the second round.

Sindhu had earlier also became the first Indian to win the Korea Super Series title.

In the men's singles event, HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the quarter-finals after comfortably winning their matches.

While Prannoy registered a 21-16, 23-21 win over Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei in one hour, eighth seed Srikanth took just 29 minutes to clinch a 21-12, 21-11 triumph over Hong Kong's Hu Yun.

Prannoy will now take on second-seed Shi Yuqi of Hong Kong for a place in the semi-finals.

Srikanth, on the other hand, has set up a clash against third-seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

Meanwhile, it was a curtains down for Sameer Verma as he slumped to a 21-10, 17-21, 15-21 defeat at the hands of second-seed Shi Yuqi of China in a thrilling second-round clash that lasted more than one hour.

In the mixed doubles event, the Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also crashed out of the tournament after suffering a 27-29, 21-16, 12-21 defeat against the Indonesia pair of Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto.

Saina Nehwal will also aim to book her place in the quarter-finals when she takes on Spain's Carolina Marin in the second round of women's singles event. (ANI)