World champion P V Sindhu crashed out of the Korea Open badminton tournament after a three-game defeat in the first round while B Sai Praneeth retired hurt in his men's singles opener here on Wednesday.
Sindhu lost 7-21 24-22 15-21 to Beiwen Zhang of United States in a match that lasted 56 minutes while World Championships bronze-medallst Sai Praneeth was trailing 9-21 7-11 when he conceded the match to fifth-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark due to an unspecified injury.
After the high of winning the World Championships, Olympic silver-medallist Sindhu was knocked out of the China Open Super 1000 event by Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong in the second round last week.
Interestingly, the 26-year-old former winner here had defeated Zhang en route her World Championships gold at Basel.
The Chinese-born American prevailed over the Indian twice last year at the India Open and Denmark Open.
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