PV Sindhu crashes out of Swiss Open

Basel [Switzerland], March 24 : Indian badminton player PV Sindhu bowed out of the women's singles while HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth exited the men's singles competition at the Swiss Open 2023 in Basel on Thursday.

Sindhu, the defending champion, lost to Indonesia's Putri Kusuma Ward 21-15, 12-21, 21-18 in a hard-fought round of 16 encounter.

Two-time Olympic medallist, Sindhu had overcome Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland to open her women's singles campaign on Wednesday 21-9, 21-16 in a 32-minute match. But she was unable to keep her momentum going.

Meanwhile, world No. 9 and fifth seed HS Prannoy lost 21-8, 21-8 to unseeded Christo Popov of France. On Wednesday, Prannoy defeated All England Open finalist Shi Yu Qi of China to advance into the men's singles pre-quarterfinals.

Kidambi Srikanth and Mithun Manjunath, too, bowed out in the men's singles in the round of 16.

With Lakshya Sen's early exit in the tournament, all eyes were on the world No. 20 Kidambi Srikanth. But, Srikanth went down 22-20, 21-17 to Hong Kong's Cheuk Yiu Lee in a close encounter.

Earlier, Mithun Manjunath lost 21-19, 21-19 to Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei.

In the men's doubles though, India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the second seeds, won 21-12, 17-21, 28-26 against Chinese Taipei pair Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee to advance into the quarter-finals.

The duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty is the last remaining Indian challenge at this year's Swiss Open badminton tournament.

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