Jakarta, Jan 16:
World champion shuttler P V Sindhu suffered a quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Sayaka Takahashi of Japan in a closely-fought women’s singles contest to bring curtains on the Indian challenge in the Indonesia Masters here today.
Sindhu frittered away a one-game lead to lose 21-16 16-21 19-21 in a thrilling quarterfinal match that lasted one hour and six minutes.
World number six Sindhu had a 4-2 head-to-head record against the 14th ranked Japanese before Thursday’s match.
Takahashi had defeated another top Indian, Saina Nehwal, in the second round.
With the defeat of Sindhu, India’s campaign in the BWF Super 500 tournament came to an end.
World championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth and Sourabh Verma crashed out of the tournament in the second round on Wednesday. (PTI)
Indians thus continued their poor form after making early exits in the Malaysia Masters last week. Sindhu and Saina had reached the quarterfinals in Kuala Lumpur but none of the men’s singles players could cross the second round.
Sindhu began well, breaking away 11-6 in the first game. The Japanese later caught up with the Indian and took the score line to 11-12. But Sindhu was in no mood to allow her opponent to claw her way back and she was 16-15 up. She took the remaining five points with ease to take the first game. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel