HS Prannoy in action. (Source : PRANNOY HS/ Twitter)Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma suffered contrasting losses to bow out of the men’s singles competition at the French Open Super 750 tournament .
Prannoy, a Thomas Cup winner, went down fighting against China’s Lu Guang Zu 19-21 22-20 19-21, while Sameer lost 18-21 11-21 to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the pre-quarterfinals stage on Thursday night. Kidambi Srikanth also crashed out of the tournament after losing to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-19 12-21 19-21 in a match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
Seventh-seeded Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are the lone surviving Indians in the tournament. The duo beat the Malaysian pair of Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee 21-16 21-14 in a round of 16 match and will face top-seeded Japanese pair of Takuro Hohi and Yugo Kobayashi in the quarterfinals later in the day.