Ace Indian shuttler P V Sindhu suffered a three-game defeat to much lower-ranked Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the second round of $350,000 Hong Kong Super Series, in Kowloon, on Thursday.
However, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth scored contrasting victories to enter the quarter-finals of the women's and men's singles respectively.
A two-time bronze medallist at the World Championships, Sindhu, ranked No 10, was unable to settle down and lost the women's singles match 17-21, 21-13, 11-21 in a little over an hour.
The only time Sindhu faced Okuhara previously was at the Badminton Asia Youth Under-19 Championships in 2012 and she beat the Japanese then over three close games.
However, she couldn't do it this time.
In the opening game the No 48-ranked Okuhara led throughout after reeling off eight straight points at 4-3. Sindhu narrowed the gap to 17-19 but the Japanese soon pocketed the game.
Sindhu changed her tactics in the second game and zoomed to a 6-2 lead before increasing it to 12-5 with the help of six straight points. She maintained the lead to take the match to the decider.
The third game began on a rousing note as both shuttlers fought hard for each point. The scores ran neck and neck, with Sindhu managing a one-point lead at the interval. But she crumbled after the breather as Okuhara registered 11 points on a trot to shut the door on the Indian.
Srikanth, who defeated two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan in the China Open Super Series Premier men's singles final on Sunday, faced stiff resistance before prevailing over Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-19, 23-21 in 39 minutes.
Having opened up a 10-2 lead and then gone into the breather at 11-3, Srikanth seemed to be running away with the opening game. But the Thai shuttler fought back from 5-14 down, as he reeled off six straight points, to reduce the gap to 14-11 and then caught up the Indian at 15-15.
Srikanth, however, broke away from there to win the game 21-19.
The second game was closely-fought; the only time the Indian had an edge was when he earned four points on the trot to open up a 18-13 lead, but the Thailand player once against caught up with Srikanth.
The scores ran neck and neck for some time again before Srikanth, who on Thursday achieved a career-best world ranking of 10th, held his nerve to take game 23-21 and wrap the match.
Saina, however, had an easy outing, needing just 31 minutes to outplay the United States' Beiwen Zhang 21-16, 21-13. The Indian now plays sixth seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals.
The world No 4 put up a dominant show throughout the match. Breaking away from 5-5 in the opening game, she never looked back.
The second game also turned out to be cakewalk for the third seeded Indian.
Image: PV Sindhu
Photograph: Nils Meilvang/Scanpix Denmark/Reuters
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