BANGKOK, May 15:
Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu squandered a one-game advantage to go down fighting to top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the quarterfinals, but the ace men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty entered the semifinal of the Thailand Open here on Friday.
Sindhu lost by 21-19, 18-21, 15-21 to world number three Yamaguchi in the women’s singles quarterfinal match that lasted just over one hour in the USD 500,000 Super 500 tournament.
Despite the loss, world number 12 Sindhu leads the head-to-head record against Yamaguchi 15-13. In the Malaysia Open Super 1000 tournament in January, Sindhu had prevailed after Yamaguchi retired from their quarterfinal game due to an injury.
Lakshya Sen too lost his men’s singles quarterfinal match to second seed
Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand, going down 19-21, 16-21 in 53 minutes.
However, there was some positive news in the doubles event, as top seeds Satwiksairaj and Chirag advanced to the semifinals with a commanding 21-12, 21-13 victory over the sixth-seeded Japanese pair of Takumi Nomura and Yuichi Shimogami.
The Indian duo will next face the third-seeded Malaysian pair, Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin.
Earlier, Sindhu’s match was a tightly contested affair, with both players locked at 11-11 before Yamaguchi edged ahead 13-11. Sindhu, however, fought back to level the score and, after the pair were tied again at 19-19, she held her nerve to win the next two points and clinch the opening game.
In the second game, Sindhu raced to a 5-1 lead and initially looked set to carry the momentum forward. However, she allowed her long-time rival to claw her way back and level the score at 11-11. From 7-11 down, Yamaguchi dominated proceedings, winning seven consecutive points to move ahead 14-11.
By then, the momentum had swung in Yamaguchi” favour, and she went on to take the game 21-18. (PTI)
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