China Open: PV Sindhu Knocked Out After Losing To Pai Yu Po In Round Of 32

PV Sindhu was knocked out of China Open after losing in a to Chinese Taipei's Pai Yu Po in the Round of 32 on Tuesday. PV Sindhu lost the first game 13-21 but in the second game, Sindhu came back strongly to take the second game 21-18. In the final game, the Indian shuttler was trailing at the mid-break but fought back to take the lead but her Chinese Taipei opponent stuck to her guns managing to win it 21-19 to advance to the next round. After her World Championships gold medal, Sindhu has failed to reach the final in five straight tournaments (including China Open). PV Sindhu exited China Open Super 1,000 in the second round in September while she was knocked out of the Korea Open in the first round. In Denmark Open, Sindhu could only reach second round and her best performance since her historic win came when she reached the quarterfinals of French Open.

Earlier in the day, India's HS Prannoy also lost his first round match to Denmark's Rasmus Gemke in straight games. 

In the mixed doubles category, Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy beat Joshua Hurlburt-Yu and Josephine Wu 21-19, 21-19. 

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy gave the Indian camp reason to be cheerful with twin victories in the men's and mixed doubles categories. Thailand Open champions Satwik and Chirag Shetty, who had reached the French Open finals last month, defeated the American pair of Phillip Chew and Ryan Chew 21-9 21-15 to set up a second-round meeting with sixth seeds Japanese Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe. 

Earlier, Satwik and Ashwini Ponnappa, ranked 30th, defeated Canada's Joshua Hurlburt-Yu and Josephine Wu 21-19 21-19 to make a positive start in the mixed doubles competition.

(With PTI inputs)