Tough going for Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu

India's chief national coach attributes loss of momentum for Sindhu's Japan Open exit while Saina needs to train harder to get on top again, feels Gopi

India's Saina Nehwal returns to Spain's Carolina Marin during the second round match at the Japan Open yesterday. Pic/AFP

It was curtains for national badminton coach P Gopichand's star protegees PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, who crashed out of the Japan Open Super Series after suffering straight-game defeats in the second round yesterday.

Playing home favourite Nozomi Okuhara for the third consecutive time, Sindhu couldn't give off her best and committed way too many errors to go down 18-21, 8-21 in a 47-minute contest. Unlike their Korea Open final which Sindhu won, this match lacked the long, intense rallies.

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In the opening game, Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu couldn't capitalise on the 11-9 and 18-16 lead and in the second game, she lost momentum.

"It was a tough match, but Okuhara played really well. It is difficult to play back-to-back tournaments, but I think it's important that Sindhu gets used to it [schedule]. She made a few critical mistakes at the end of the first game and then she lost momentum," Gopichand told mid-day yesterday.

Gopichand

Meanwhile, Nehwal too squandered to a 14-10 lead in the opening game and a 6-4 advantage in the second to go down 16-21, 13-21 to Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain. Talking about Nehwal's game, Gopichand said, "Saina played well.

She was up 14-9 in the first game and after that, there were some very long rallies. In the initial part of the second game, Marin raised the speed, where Saina encountered some problems. I feel Saina could be better off with some more training."

However, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy advanced to the quarter-finals. World No. 8 Srikanth, who recently won back-to-back titles in Indonesia and Australia, beat Hong Kong's Hu Yun 21-12, 21-11. Srikanth now plays world champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. Prannoy managed to beat Chinese Taipei's Hsu Jen Hao 21-16, 23-21. His next opponent is Chinese Shi Yuqi, who beat Sameer Verma 10-21, 21-17, 21-15.

With inputs from PTI

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