India’s shuttle players B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma ended their campaign at the Super 750 Malaysia Open badminton after playing each other in the men’s singles opening round here on Tuesday.
While Praneeth defeated world number six Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, Sameer lost to world number eight Jonatan Christie from Indonesia.
Praneeth, 30, currently ranked 19 in the world, lost to Ginting 15-21 21-19 9-21 in a 50-minute men’s singles match.
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This is the eighth meeting between the players with the Indonesian team leading in a 4-3 head-to-head record. They last competed at the 2020 Asian Team Championships, where Ginting won the competition after Praneeth retired due to injury.
Sameer, who is returning from injury, fought for 49 minutes before losing 14-21 21-13 7-21 in another game.
In the doubles event, women’s doubles Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also had to leave the tournament after losing 15-21 11-21 to Japanese duo Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida, who finished sixth.
Among other Indian players, semi-finalist HS Prannoy of Indonesia will face Malaysia’s Liew Daren, while world No. 8 Satwiksairaj Rankedlydy and Chirag Shetty will face Malaysian duo Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee at the end of the day.
