PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal have been shown the exit doors of Japan Open 2017 Superseries campaign on Thursday (September 21). Sindhu lost to arch-rival Nozomi Okuhara while Saina was beaten by Carolina Marin.
Both the Indian shuttlers lost their respective matches in straight games, which also ends India's women's singles journey in Japan. Okuhara beat her higher-ranked opponent 21-18, 21-8 while Olympic champion dismantled Saina 21-16, 21-13.
Marin was at her impressive best, and did not give much chances to the former world number one from India to even make a fightback in the second set.
PV Sindhu's #JapanSS campaign comes to an end as Okuhara wins the match 21-18, 21-8.
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) September 21, 2017
However, for Sindhu, she started on a bright note, racing to a 6-2 lead in the first game, but Okuhara was keeping the pressure on her opponent.
At 18-16, Sindhu was looking good to take the opener, but the world number eight came up with five straight points to stun the Indian shuttler, much to the delight of the packed crowd at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
The second game was heavily one-sided as Okuhara was having fun on the court at the expense of Sindhu. The latter made too many unforced errors that the local favourite did not have to break a sweat to seal a quarter-final berth.
Notably, Sindhu was affected by fatigue as she was involved in a 64-minute battle against Japan's Minatsu Mitani in her first round on Wednesday, September 20. The 22-year-old came back from a game down to win the match 12-21, 21-15, 21-17.
Thursday's match was thus a huge disappointment to fans, who were waiting for another slugfest between the two. Notably, Okuhara now has taken a 5-4 head-to-head lead over Sindhu.
Srikanth, Prannoy impress
Earlier in the day, eighth seed Kidambi Srikanth destroyed his Hong Kong opponent Hu Yun 21-12, 21-11 to book his place in the quarter-final. He will face reigning world champion Viktor Axelsen on Friday, September 22.
Meanwhile, HS Prannoy defeated South Korea's Lee Hyun Il in the round of 16 21-16, 23-21.
On the other hand, India's Sameer Verma came up with an impressive fight before going down to second seed Shi Yuqi (China) 21-10, 17-21, 15-21.
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