File photo of PV Sindhu©AFP
India’s campaign came to a premature end when double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu crashed out in the quarterfinals of the Kumamoto Masters Japan Tremendous 500 badminton tournament on Thursday. World no. 20 Sindhu was the only Indian in contention after the exits of Lakshya Sen and the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. Sindhu squandered a game lead to lose 21-17 16-21 17-21 against Canadian Michelle Li, ranked 23rd in the world, in a women’s singles match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes. It was neck and neck between the two bowlers in the first game before Sindhu took a marginal lead of 11-8 and thereafter kept her lead just ahead to take an early lead.
Trailing, Li came out attacking in the second game and took an 8-3 lead before Sindhu recovered with the score reading 16-16 at one point.
But Li then upped his game and bagged five points in a row to achieve parity in the contest.
The decider saw a tight battle between the two bowlers up to 17 points when Li forced the pace, bagging four straight points to close out the match. The Canadian was also helped by Sindhu’s unforced errors.
Li will play Yu Jin Sim of South Korea in the quarterfinals.
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