Ace Indian badminton player PV Sindhu’s foray into the Swiss Open 2023 was cut short at the Round of 16 stage after she crashed out of the women’s singles event. The competition is underway in Basel in Switzerland.
Elsewhere, HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth, playing in the men’s singles event also exited the tournament after suffering losses.
PV Sindhu had begun her title defence with an easy victory over local wildcard opponent Jenjira Stadelmann. As Lakshya Sen suffered straight-games defeat in the first round of Swiss Open, a BWF World Tour Super 300 event, the two-time Olympic medalist and Commonwealth Games champion PV Sindhu beat Stadelmann 21-9, 21-16 to wrap up the encounter in just 32 minutes.
With the win, fourth-seeded PV Sindhu had reached the second round of an individual event for the first time this season to seal a face-off against Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani.
However, in the Round of 16 encounter, PV Sindhu faltered to crash out of the Swiss Open. Coming up against her Indonesian opponent, she was defeated 21-15, 12-12, 21-18 in a tight contest.
On the other hand, in a dismal night for Indians, World number nine and fifth seed HS Prannoy lost 21-8, 21-8 to France’s unseeded Christo Popov. He had defeated all England Open finalist China’s Shi Yu Qi to enter into the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals.
Moreover, Kidambi Srikanth and Mithun Manjunath also had a night to forget, crashing out of their respective men’s singles bouts in the Round of 16 stage.
It may be noted that Lakshya Sen’s early exit from the tournament put the World number 20 ranked Kidambi Srikanth on centre stage with all eyes on him. However, he could not live up to the expectations, bowing out after losing 22-20, 21-17 to Cheuk Yiu Lee of Hong Kong in a tightly contested affair.
