Teen spirit too hot to handle for PV Sindhu

Basel, March 22

Two-time Olympics medallist PV Sindhu’s run at the Swiss Open was cut short by a Japanese teenager, while top Indian male shuttler Lakshya Sen lost to Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarterfinals of the Super 300 tournament here.

Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George won their respective men’s singles Round-of-16 matches to advance to the quarterfinals late on Thursday night.

Sindhu lost to 17-year-old junior world champion Tomoka Miyazaki 21-16 19-21 16-21, while Sen was eliminated by Lee in a 17-21 15-21 loss in just 38 minutes.

Srikanth defeated top seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 21-61 21-15, while Rajawat got the better of Lei La Xi of China 21-14 21-13. George struggled against Frenchman Alex Lanier but won 18-21 22-20 21-18 in a 71-minute contest.

The women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 14-21 15-21 to Aussies Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu today.