P V Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, was knocked out in the first round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 event on Tuesday after losing in straight games to China’s He Bing Jiao. In the women’s singles, Sindhu fell to Bing Jiao 14-21, 18-21.
Sindhu, a former world champion, has won two Super 300 championships this season: the Syed Modi International and the Swiss Open.
With this victory, world No. 9 Bing Jiao, whom Sindhu defeated in the Badminton Asia Championship, now leads Indian 10-8 in head-to-head competition. Sindhu’s preparations for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham have been hampered by her defeat at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno.
In the men’s singles, B Sai Praneeth lost 16-21 19-21 against Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark.
Sameer Verma was the only Indian singles player to advance to the round of on the day, when he defeated France’s Thomas Rouxel 21-19 21-15 in 45 minutes.
In the second round, he will play Malaysian sixth seed Lee Zii Jia.
Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the women’s doubles with a 21-15 21-8 win against the Indo-US combo of Ishika Jaiswal and Srivedya Gurazada.
The partnered team of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto followed a similar path to Sindhu and Praneeth, as they were eliminated in the first round after losing 14-21 11-21 as the Hong Kong pairing of Chang Tak Ching and NG Wing Yung Hong in just 32 minutes.
In the men’s doubles tournament, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy were defeated 8-21 11-21 by third seeded Japanese pair TakuroHoki and Yugo Kobayashi.
The Indian was slow out of the blocks in the Sindhu against Bing Jiao match, as the Chinese didn’t allow her get a hold, rushing to a 9-2 lead and then extending it to 11-4 at the break.
Sindhu came out firing after the break, scoring four consecutive points to cut the lead to 8-11. The Chinese, however, did not let Sindhu control the match and comfortably won the first game.