Denmark Open: B Sai Praneeth, Sameer Verma crash out in second round

Ace Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth suffered a major blow as he knocked out of the ongoing Demark Open badminton tournament after slumping to straight games defeat at the hands of top-seed Kento Momota of Japan in the second round of the tournament in Odense V on Thursday evening.

World championships bronze medallist B. Sai Praneeth struggled against the top-seeded shuttler throughout the clash before going down fighting 6-21, 14-21 in a thrilling round-of-16 clash of the men's singles event that lasted 34 minutes. 

Momota will now lock horns with Rasmus Gemka of Denmark for a place in the semi-final of the tournament. 

Sameer Verma--another Indian in the fray--also bowed out of the Denmark Open after suffering a 12-21, 10-21 defeat at the hand of fifth-seed Chen Long of China in the second roun clash that lasted 38 minutes. 

Praneeth had earlier swept aside Olympic champion Lin Dan of China 21-14, 21-17 in the opening round. Sameer, on the other hand, had eased past Kanta Tuneyama of Japan to reach the second round. 

Meanwhile, India's Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy also crashed out of the tournament after losing their second round encounter of the mixed doubles event against the Malaysian team of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying.

After going down in the opening game, Pranaav and Reddy rebounded strongly to win the second game before they failed to capitalise on the same and slumped to a 24-26, 21-13, 11-21 defeat in a match that lasted a little less than an hour. 

With this, India's campaign at the event has also ended. 

Earlier, Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu also crashed out after suffering 14-21, 17-21 defeat against An Se Young of Korea in a thrilling pre-quarterfinal clash of the women's singles event that lasted 40 minutes.