Prannoy’s epic battle ends in Korea Open heartache

YEOSU: Indian badminton ace HS Prannoy made an early exit from the Korea Open Super 500 tourna-ment as he lost his second round match to Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in Yeosu, Korea, on Thursday.

World number 10 Prannoy, seeded fifth in the tournament, lost 15-21, 21-19, 18-21 to his opponent ranked eight places below him in a closely-contested match that lasted one hour and six minutes.

In another men's singles match, Priyanshu Rajawat gave a spirited fight against world number four and top-seeded Kodai Naraoka of Japan before losing 14-21, 21-18, 17-21 in a second-round match that went on for one hour 22 minutes.

The Indian women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand was no match to the second seeded South Korean opponents Na Ha Baek and Hee So Lee as they lost 11-21, 4-21 in just 33 minutes in the second round.

The same was in case of the Indian mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy as they lost to fourth seeded Chinese pair of Zhe Yan Feng and Ping Dong Huang 15-21, 12-21 in 35 minutes.

Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth had lost their respective women's and men's singles opening round matches. Agencies

Also Read: PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth crash out Korea Open, Prannoy advances to second round

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