INDIA CHALLENGE ENDS AT CHINA OPEN
SINDHU, SRIKANTH LOSE QUARTERFINAL MATCHES
NEW DELHI: After showing much promise in the earlier rounds, the Indian challenge fizzled out at the $700,000 China Open as PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth lost their respective quarter-finals in Fuzhou on Friday.
Sindhu yet again struggled to move past Chinese eighth seed He Bingjiao as she lost 17-21, 21-17, 15-21 in an hour and nine minutes. It was her third loss to Bingjiao in 2018 after going down in Indonesia and France in July and October. The Chinese world No.7 now holds an 8-5 record against Sindhu. The left-handed Bingjiao controlled the rallies at the start by executing her strokes perfectly and used her deft touch to outwit Sindhu. Sindhu frittered away an 8-3 advantage to lose the opening game. However, Sindhu made a roaring comeback in the second game before losing the decider despite a late charge.
In the decider, Bingjiao raced to an 11-6 advantage at the interval. The Chinese managed to eke out a 15-8 lead before Sindhu produced a late charge to claw back to 15-16. But Bingjiao reeled off the remaining points to cement her place in the semi-finals.
Later, Srikanth paid the price for being too erratic as he lost 14-21, 14-21 in 35 minutes to world No.3 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in men’s singles.
In men’s doubles, India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty put up a strong fight before going down 11-21, 21-16, 12-21 to former world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia.
INDIA LOSE TO KOREA
MARKHAM (CANADA): India lost 1-3 to South Korea in the mixed team quarter-finals of the world junior badminton championships here on Thursday. Indian mixed duo Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila lost 22-20, 14-21, 12-21 to Na Eun Jeong and Chan Wang. Lakshya Sen made it 1-1 by beating Ji Hoon Choi 16-21, 21-18, 21-12 in men’s singles. Korea’s men’s doubles pair of Tae Yag Shin and Chan Wang then beat Krishna Pasad Garaga and Kapila 21-19, 19-21, 11-21 before Ga Eun Park then beat Malvika Bansod 21-17, 21-12 in women’s singles.