BWF World C'ships: PV Sindhu knocked out, Lakshya, Prannoy move to pre-quarters

Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu was knocked out of the ongoing BWF World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark while Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy moved to the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

16th-seed Sindhu, who got a bye in the first round, was up against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the second round.

The match was billed to be thrilling with both former women's world champions taking on each other but it was Okuhara who started on a strong note.

Sindhu was going toe-to-toe with Okuhara in the first game till the break as the Japanese shuttler had a lead of 11-9. Okuhara came to all guns blazing after the break and dominated with an all-round display to win the first game 21-14.

Sindhu looked clueless and didn't attack with two unforced errors ending the first game.

In the second game, PV Sindhu started aggressively and Okuhara was stunned. Sindhu raced to a lead of 9-0 owing to her fantastic winners and attacking display.

But Okuhara started her comeback with five consecutive points and entered the mid-game break trailing 9-11.

While Sindhu was expected to put the game to bed, Okuhara had other ideas as she barely gave Sindhu an inch to breathe and won the second game 21-14 knocking the Indian shuttler out.

In men's singles, Lakshya Sen moved to the pre-quarterfinals as he defeated Korea's Jeon Hyeok Jin in straight games. Sen, who won the bronze medal at the 2021 edition, thrashed Korean Jeon 21-11, 21-12.

The Indian, thus, got his revenge against the Korean, who had defeated him in their only meeting at the Asia Team Championship in 2022.

The Indian lead 5-1 and slowly kept extending the gap against a struggling Jeon, who lacked the finishing punch during the fast-paced rallies.

Sen entered the interval with an 11-6 lead and kept things under a firm grip even after resumption to quickly move to 18-11 before sealing the first game with three straight points.

In the second game, Sen started with a lead of 4-1 before racing to an 11-5 lead at the break. He continued his fine display and breezed past Jeon to win the second game 21-12.

HS Prannoy breezed past Indonesian Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo in dominant fashion. Prannoy used variations to keep up the attack from the back. He used a lot of angled returns to move to 8-4 after the 4-4 initial duel.

The Indian showed great anticipation and composure to gallop to 18-8 with Wardoyo making too many mistakes. A forehand going to the net gave 11 game points to Prannoy and he sealed it without much ado.

In the second game, Prannoy unleashed perfect shots to completely dictate the rallies. Wardoyo tried hard to turn it around in the game but Prannoy finished the match with much ease.

Wardoyo managed to claw back at 13-13 but Prannoy once again nosed ahead to 16-13 with a forehand cross-court shot and a smash. The Indian was in sublime touch as he read his opponent well and used his array of shots to set up the points.

Lakshya is expected to face his long-time rival Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the next round while HS Prannoy will take on Loh Kean Yew.