MUELHEIM AN DER RUHR (Germany): Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out but world championships silver winner Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the quarterfinals of the German Open Super 300 badminton tournament on Thursday.
The seventh seeded Sindhu, a 2019 World Champion, suffered a shock 14-21, 21-15, 14-21 loss to China's Zhang Yi Man in 55 minutes in the women's singles second round.
Srikanth, a former world no 1 and seeded eighth, prevailed 21-16, 21-23, 21-18 over China's Lu Guang Zu in a men's singles second round match that lasted an hour and seven minutes.
It proved to be a disappointing start to the European leg for Sindhu, who will be one of the contenders at next week's All England Championships.
The Indian couldn't get going as Zhang broke off at 5-5 and jumped to a 11-5 lead with six straight points. She kept her nose ahead to pocket the opening game without much ado.
Stung by the reversal, Sindhu made a comeback in the second game as she fought her way to a slender 11-10 lead at the break and then slowly marched ahead to bounce back into the contest.
But the Chinese found her bearing in the decider as she moved away after an initial duel to grab a 11-8 advantage at the interval. She didn't give the Indian much chance after that and soon shut the doors on her fancied opponent.
