PV Sindhu, who has won two Olympic medals, lost to Zhang Yi Man of China in straight games on Wednesday in the opening round of the Japan Open at the Yoyogi National Gym in Tokyo.
Sindhu suffered her eighth first-round exit in 13 BWF World Tour tournaments this year after losing 12-21, 13-21 in the 32-minute encounter. After losing to Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the opening round of the Korea Open the previous week, Sindhu was eliminated in the first round for the second consecutive time.
After recovering from her injury, the former world champion has been a shell of her former self and has fallen to world No. 17 after a string of first-round losses. Even when playing opponents with lesser rankings, she has a tendency to make mistakes and has trouble finishing points.
Sindhu has began working with prominent new coach Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, the 2003 All-England winner, with the intention of improving her situation.
Zhang, ranked 18th in the world, defeated Sindhu in the Malaysian Open quarterfinals in May of this year, but the Chinese avenged that setback and improved their overall win-loss record against the Indian to 3-2.
The in-form doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had no trouble defeating the Indonesian team of Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin 21-16 11-21 21-13 to go to the second round while Sindhu has been having difficulties.
Satwik and Chirag, who were seeded third in the competition and won the Korean Open championship on Sunday, will play Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede of Denmark in the second round.
Lakshya Sen also had a successful opening round of the BWF Super 750 competition after defeating fellow countryman Priyanshu Rajawat 21-15, 12-21, 24-22. In the second round, he takes on Japanese opponent Kanta Tsuneyama.
However, in a men’s singles match that could have gone either way, Mithun Manjunath was defeated by Weng Hong Yang of China in the first round 21-13 22-24 18-21. The game lasted for one hour and twenty-five minutes.
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