Fuzhou (China): Defending champion PV Sindhu sailed into the quarter finals but newly-crowned national champions, Saina Nehwal and H S Prannoy, crashed out of the China Open Super Series Premier meet, here on Thursday. It turned out to be a dismal day for Saina and Prannoy, who had clinched the national championship titles at Nagpur earlier this month. While Saina lost 18-21, 11-21 against her Japanese nemesis and fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi in the women’s singles second round, world No. For Saina, the match against Yamaguchi was always expected to be a tricky one, considering her inferior head-to- head record against the Japanese. On Thursday, Saina, thus, suffered her fourth defeat — three of them in last one month — against Yamaguchi this year.

Source: The Telegraph November 16, 2017 21:00 UTC