Singapore Open 2023: Indian Challenge Ends As Srikanth, Rajawat & Kapila-Arjun Pair Crash Out In Second Round

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Kallang (Singapore), June 8: Indian challenge at the Singapore Open 2023 ended on Thursday (June 8) as the three second round matches involving the Indian shuttlers ended in defeat at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore.

In men's singles, former World Championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth suffered a straight games loss to Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei. The Indian shuttler lost 15-21, 19-21 to the unseeded Chinese Taipei shuttler in the round of 16 match that lasted for 37 minutes.

In the other men's singles match, Priyanshu Rajawat, who started his Singapore Open 2023 campaign with a brilliant win over world no. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan, went down in straight games to another Japanese shuttler in Kodai Naraoka.

The Orleans Masters champion Rajawat suffered a straight games loss to the third seeded Japanese by a scoreline of 17-21, 16-21 in the round of 16 match that lasted for 47 minutes.

Earlier on Thursday (June 8), the lone doubles team that reached the second round, Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun also suffered straight games defeat to England men's double team of Sean Vendy and Ben Lane.

The Indian men's doubles pair, who were the country's only doubles team to reach the round of 16, lost by a score of 15-21, 19-21 to the English pair in the second round match that lasted for 41 minutes on Court 2.

Earlier on Wednesday (June 7), India's top doubles teams - men's pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and women's pair Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand suffered first round defeats in their respective matches on day 2 of the Singapore Open.

On Tuesday (June 6) - the opening day of the tournament, as many as five Indian shuttlers including fomer champions PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal as well as Akarshi Kashyap, HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen all made exits in the opening round.