Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu was unable to defend her badminton title at the Swiss Open 2023. She lost the match against the unseeded Indonesian player Putri Kusuma Wardani in a thrilling second round of women’s singles. World No.9 Sindhu, no.4 in this event, lost the match by15-21, 21-12, 18-21 to Wardani. This was their first encounter game at the international badminton event level on Thursday night.
However, Men’s duo Satwik sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, flew the Indian flag as they advanced to the Quarters after a narrow win by 12-21, 21-17, 28-26, over Taiwanese duo Fang Chih Lee and Fang Jen Lee. (Read Also: PV Sindhu, Prannoy enters pre-quarterfinals of Swiss open 2023)
On Friday, this world number6 Indian duo is meeting the Danish couple Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede.
Kidambi Srikanth lost his match with Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yiu Lee on Thursday.
Looking at the rankings there is little separating them. As Srikanth is ranked 20th in the world compared to 19th by its rival. It was a close match, but Lee kept his composure and emerged victorious in singles 22-20 21-17 to advance to the quarterfinals.
World No. 9 and no. 5 HS Prannoy faced defeat in the second round on Thursday. He lost in consecutive games to unranked Frenchman Christo Popov. A favorite for the competition, Prannoy looked like a pale shadow compared to world No. 40 Popov as he didn’t fight. He lost by 8-21, 8-21 to withdraw from the men’s singles tournament.
National Champion Mithun Manjunath was also eliminated in the second round, losing by 19-21, 10-21 to Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei.
