Indian male shuttlers' campaign in the All England Badminton Championships came to a halt today with the trio of B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma making an exit in the second round of the singles event here.
Praneeth, who had stunned two-time Olympic silver medallist and former World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the opening round, lost to Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark in a three-setter to bow out of the prestigious tournament.
The Indian raised visions of another upset win as he took the first set but later fizzled out in the subsequent two to lose the match 21-12 11-21 16-21.
The highest ranked Indian Srikanth was no match for fourth seed Kento Momota of Japan as he lost 10-21 13-21 in a lopsided match.
Qualifier Sameer Verma put a good fight before losing to eighth seed Tian Houwei of China in a three-setter. Just like Praneeth, Verma took the first set but squandered the advantage as he lost 21-10 12-21 19-21.
With the exit of all the Indian male shuttlers, only top women's player Saina Nehwal still remains in the fray in the USD 550,000 tournament at the Barclaycard Arena here.
P V Sindhu had crashed out of the women's singles in the first round itself. The women's doubles team of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa had also made an exit in the opening round while the men's doubles duo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy did the same.
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Srikanth too had his chances even though he was lagging behind for most part of the opening game. The Indian was 14-9 and 17-13 behind but he did manage to level par at 17-17 and even grab the lead twice. But it was Vittinghus who reached the game point twice and grabbed the second opportunity to pocket the first game when the Indian hit long.
After a fighting start to the second game, Vittinghus once again moved to a slender 4-3 lead after winning a video referral. His smash had kissed the line after Srikanth failed to reach for the shot. The Indian suffered a bruise on his knee area and needed medical attention.
After the break, Vittinghus continued to move ahead reaching 7-4. Srikanth made some excellent retrieves to narrow the lead but the Dane managed to enter the break at 11-6.
After the interval, it was Vittinghus' show as he continued his march, reeling off four points. Srikanth grabbed a couple but it was the Dane who was reading the game better and came up with better strokes even as the Indian kept faltering with his strokes.
At 19-11, Vittinghus took a medical time out after suffering a bruise on his right elbow area.
A rushing net shot error and a smash gone wide gave two points to Srikanth, who gifted away seven match points to the Dane after finding the net. Vittinghus then grabbed his maiden Super Series final place after the Indian hit wide after a long rally.
