Tokyo Olympics: PV Sindhu loses to Tai Tzu Ying in women’s singles semis
Reigning world champion P V Sindhu on Saturday lost semifinals of women’s singles after facing world number 1 Tai Tzu-Ying of Chinese Taipei.
PV Sindhu lost 18-21, 11-21 to Tai Tzu-Ying in the women’s singles semifinal. Sindhu will face China’s He Bing Jiao in the bronze-medal match tomorrow.
The Indian shuttler matched her opponent shot for shot, but it did not prove to be enough as Tzu-Ying ended up taking the first game 21-18. Sindhu needed to win the next game to stay alive in the semi-final.
Tzu Ying is currently ranked first in the BWF women’s singles world ranking. On the other hand, Sindhu is placed seventh on the BWF leaderboard
The champion had stormed into the semis with a fighting straight-game win over world no 5 Japanese Akane Yamaguchi on Friday.
The 26-year-old Indian, who won a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, defended brilliantly and rode on her attack to outclass the fourth seeded Yamaguchi 21-13 22-20 in a 56-minute quarterfinal clash at the Musashino Forest Plaza here.
She will next face the winner of the other quarterfinal between Thailand’s Ratchanok Inthanon and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying.
The sixth seeded Indian came into the match with a 11-7 head-to-head count against the Japanese, whom she had last beaten at the All England Championship in March this year.
On Thursday, Sindhu had notched up a straight-game triumph over Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt, 13th seed, in the pre-quarterfinals.
She was the lone Indian in fray in badminton after men’s singles player B Sai Praneeth and men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy failed to qualify for the knockout stage.
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