Kowloon: Shuttler PV Sindhu who bagged olympic medal, suffered an unexpected loss in the second round. The hope of India is still alive as Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma advanced to the quarterfinals to keep India's flag flying at the Hong Kong Open World Tour Super 500 tournament. World no. 4 PV Sindhu suffered defeat by Hyun Ji Sung of Korea 24-26 20-22 in 59 minute duel.
India's hope is still alive at the men's singles shuttlers as Srikanth and Sameer progressing to the last eight round, albeit with contrasting results.
Srikanth, who had bagged a silver medal at this year's Commonwealth Games, had to dig deep in his reservoir to outwit fellow Indian H S Prannoy 18-21 30-29 21-18 in a thrilling match, clocking an hour and seven minutes. Now Srikanth will face either Japan's Kenta Nishimoto or Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen.
Sameer, qualified for the quarterfinals after his opponent, Chen Long pulled out of the competition due to injury. He will face either Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus or local hope Lee Cheuk Yiu on Friday.
However, mixed doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 17-21 11-21 to Chinese Taipei's Lee Yang and Hsu Ya Ching to bow out of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Men's doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri also failed to clear the second round as they lost to Jhe-Huei Lee and Yang Lee 16-21 15-21.