Bangkok
PV Sindhu fought her heart out but lost the battle, as her semi-final passage was hit in the Group 'B' at the BWF World Tour Finals in Bangkok on Thursday.
It was a similar story in the men's section as India’s Kidambi Srikanth also accounted for the second consecutive loss, and has narrowed the chance of making it to the semi-final after a loss to World No.12 Wang Tzu Wei, 19-21, 09-21.
The world champion, Sindhu second defeat in as many encounters saw her succumb to a straight-game defeat against Ratchanok Intanon 19-21, 13-21.
A day after losing her Group B opener against the current world number one Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan 21-19, 12-21, 17-21, World champion Sindhu was no match to Intanon.
Sindhu showed some fight in the opening game but wasn't able to control as she lost the opening game 18-21 to Intanon, who had defeated her last week in a lop-sided Thailand Open quarter-final clash. Intanon then came out with an even better performance in the second game to seal it 21-13 and registered a comfortable win in the match which lasted just 43 minutes.
This is Sindhu's second successive defeat against the Thai star. 5 days ago, Sindhu had surrendered to Ratchanok Intanon in the last-8 match of Super 1000 events in Thailand.
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who had won the prestigious title in 2018, will next play lower-ranked Pornpawee Chochuwong, on Friday. Earlier, Sindhu was ousted as early as the first round in the first of the two Super 1000 events in Thailand and she suffered a quarter-final exit last week in Bangkok.
It was a similar story in the men's section as India’s Kidambi Srikanth also accounted for the second consecutive loss, and has a very narrow chance of making it to the semi-final after a loss to World No.12 Wang Tzu Wei.
There was a stunning 38-shot rally between the two players that Srikanth went on to win and take an 11-10 lead. But, that just saving grace for the Indian, as he lost the 21-19, 21-9.
In the second game, however, there was a complete roller coaster for the World No 12, Wang Tzu Wei, as he crushed Srikanth 21-9.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
