India’s poor showing at the 2016 OUE Singapore Open continued today, with back-to-back losses in the doubles and singles. Early in the day, the men’s doubles combine of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar crumbled in straight games to the Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, who won 21-12, 21-12, dispatching their Indian rivals in under half an hour.
In the absence of Indian top-ranked shuttler Saina Nehwal, who won the women’s singles here in 2010, colleague PV Sindhu shouldered much of India’s hopes at the tournament. The 20-year-old, who won her first round match at the tournament against Thai shuttler Busanan Ongbumrungphan, today lost out to China’s He Bingjiao.
Hyderabad-born Sindhu took a convincing first game against her Chinese rival, winning 21-11, but then lost momentum, and lost both the subsquent sets 14-21 as Bingjiao progressed to the next round.
The men’s doubles team did not fare well either. Up against the much higher-ranked Indonesian combine of Setiawan and Ahsan, who are seeded second in their category, Chopra and Dewalkar lost in straight games, with the Indonesian team beating them quite easily.
Reigning champions at the men’s doubles, Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi, also of Indonesia, won their own match against Puavaranukroh Dechapol and Kedren Kittinupong of Thailand.
Men’s and women’s top seeds both win
World No. 1 Carolina Marin defeated her Thai rival Nitchaon Jindapol in straight games 21-19, 21-15, while men’s top seed Chen Long took victory as well, but did not have as easy an outing as Marin.
Chen was taken to three games by Boonsak Ponsana, to whom he lost the first game 17-21. After that loss, however, he came back to win the second game and then cruised through the third 21-7.
Men’s reigning champion Kento Momota of Japan was recently involved in a gambling scandal that has seen him axed from Japan’s squad to the Rio Olympics in 2016; he is not participating at the tournament.
Sun Yu of China, who won the women’s singles title last year, beat Nozomi Okuhara, who was seeded second at the tournament and this year won . The 22-year-old Japanese shuttler lost in straight games 16-21, 11-21 to her Chinese rival.
India also participated in the mixed doubles, with Pranaav Jerry Chopra partnering Sikki Reddy against fourth seeds Xu Chen and Ma Jin of China. They lost 15-21, 19-21 in a 33-minute encounter which saw the last Indian hopes at the tournament now ousted.
