Sindhu, Prannoy win; Saina, Sameer bow out of Hong Kong Open

World Champion P V Sindhu me a positive start to her campaign but Saina Nehwal and Sameer Verma were ousted from Hong Kong Open after suffering contrasting defeats in opening round of USD 400,000 event here on Wednesday. Sixth seed Sindhu, who h faltered in opening round in a couple of recent tournaments, took 36 minutes to see off world 19 Kim Ga Eun of Korea 21-15 21-16 to progress to second round.  Olympic silver medallist will face Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan next.HS Prany also crossed opening hurdle, beating China's Huang Yu Xiang 21-17 21-17 in 44 minutes to a clash with sixth seed Indonesian Jonatan Christie.

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Saina Nehwal crashes out

However, eighth seed Saina, who claimed Indonesia Masters in January this year, suffered her fifth first-round loss in last six tournaments, going down 13-21 20-22 to China's Cai Yan Yan for second successive time. She h lost to Cai at China Open last week.World .16 Sameer fought for 54 minutes before going to Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei 11-21 21-13 8-21 in opening match. It was his third successive loss in opening round.Saina and Sameer are both scheduled to play Gwangju Korea Masters Super 300 tournament next week.

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Or Indians in action

Women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also couldn't cross opening round, losing 13-21 12-21 to Denmark's Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen.World 6 Sindhu moved to a 8-4 le early on but Kim mand to turn tables, holding a 11-10 vant at brear. Indian n reeled off six points at 13-13 to march ahe and seal opening game. second game was different as Sindhu again broke off at 5-5, grabbing seven points on trot to move to a massive 12-5 le. Indian kept moving ahe and eventually shut door comfortably on her opponent.Earlier, Saina lacked wherewithal to put up a fight against Cai in opening game and fell behind from very start. She couldn't catch up with Chinese, who moved to a comfortable 11-4 le at break and kept surging ahe to win first game.In second game, Saina was 3-0 up initially but Cai reeled off seven straight points at 2-4 to jump to a 9-4 vant. Indian narrowed gap but Cai was ahe 11-9 at brear.After interval, Chinese jumped to a 17-11 vant.

However, Saina mand to fight back and grab a game point at 20-19 but Chinese once again mand to se ahe.Sameer, on or hand, mand to take one game away from world .26 Wang after meekly surrendering opening game.Wang was 7-4 up and n surged to 15-5 in a jiffy to eventually close opening game. In second game, Wang led 3-0 early on but this time Sameer put up a fierce fight to open up a slender 11-10 le, which he capitalised to roar back into contest.However, Sameer was completely blown away by Wang in decider. Taiwanese shuttler zoomed to an 8-0 le and n grabbed a 15-2 vant, a gap which Indian failed to bridge in end. 

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