Swiss Open: Sindhu, Prannoy, Srikanth ousted; Shetty-Rankireddy reach quarters

Basel:  India’s campaign in singles at the Swiss Open 2023 suffered a big jolt with two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, former Men’s World No 1 Kidambi Srikanth, and other top singles player HS Prannoy crashing out in the Round of 16 stages.

Mithun Manjunath too went out at the pre-quarterfinal stage, thus leaving the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the second seeds, remaining in the fray.

Sindhu, the defending champion, lost to Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-15, 12-21, 21-18 in a hard-fought Round of 16 encounters. Sindhu, who overcome Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland in the opening round, bowed out on Thursday in a 59-minute encounter at St Jakobshalle here.

World No. 9 and fifth seed HS Prannoy lost 21-8, 21-8 to the unseeded Christo Popov of France. Prannoy had defeated All England Open finalist Shi Yu Qi of China to advance into men’s singles pre-quarterfinals before slumping to defeat on Thursday.

He joined Kidambi Srikanth and Mithun Manjunath on the sidelines.

Srikanth, the world No. 20 in the latest badminton rankings, went down 22-20, 21-17 to Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yiu Lee. Earlier, Mithun Manjunath crashed out after losing 21-19, 21-19 to Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei.

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