Indian challenge ends at Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament

TAIPEI: India's challenge ended at the $200,000 Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after top shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth, and fast-rising Sameer Verma lost their respective second round matches here today.

World No.3 Srikanth was handed a shock defeat by unseeded Indonesia's Ihsan Maulana Mustofa 19-21 18-21 in a men's singles second round match that lasted 40 minutes at the Taipei Arena.

While Sindhu, who is yet to regain full form after her return to the field following a long injury lay-off, also lost in straight games against third seeded local shuttler Tai Tzu Ying.

The two-time World Championship bronze medallist Indian lost 15-21 17-21 in just 32 minutes to bow out of the women's singles competition.

With this victory, the World No.5 Taipei player has extended her record over Sindhu to 3-1.

Earlier, 20-year-old Sameer went down to World No.1 and Chinese top seed Chen Long 19-21 16-21 in 42 minutes.