Sindhu advances, Praneeth, Kashyap crash out of Korea Super Series

Ace Indian shuttler B. Sai Praneeth suffered a major blow as he was knocked out of the ongoing Korea Super Series after going down against Chinese Tapie's Wang Tzu Wei in the men's singles event here on Thursday.

The 25-year-old failed to replicate his brilliant opening round performance and slumped to a 13-21, 24-26 defeat at the hands of seventh-seed Tzu Wei in an exhilarating second-round clash that lasted 40 minutes.

In the men's doubles event, the Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty booked their place in the quarter-finals after clinching a three-set victory over the seventh-seeded team of Lee Jhe-Huei and Lee Yang of Chinese Taipei.

After comfortably winning the first set, Rankireddy and Shetty went down in the second before they rebounded strongly to post a 23-21, 16-21, 21-8 win over seventh-seeded pair in a clash that lasted 31 minutes.

Earlier in the day, Rio Olympic silver-medallist P.V. Sindhu continued her rich vein of form as she cemented her spot in the quarter-finals of the women's singles after a thumping 22-20, 21-17 win over Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in a second-round encounter that lasted 42 minutes.

Sindhu will now cross swords with Minatsu Mitani of Japan for a place in the last four.

In another men's singles event, Sameer Verma progressed through to the last-eight with an easy 21-19, 21-13 triumph over Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent in a 50-minute clash.

However, it was a curtains down for Parupalli Kashyap as he was stunned by top-seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea in a three-set thriller.

After losing the first set, Kashyap rebounded strongly to win the second one before eventually slumping to a 16-21, 21-17, 16-21 defeat at the hands of Wan Ho.

Sameer will now square off with Wan Ho to make it to the next round.

-ANI