HEARTBREAK FOR PV SINDHU
LOSES TO AKANE YAMAGUCHI IN ALL ENGLAND OPEN
BIRMINGHAM: PV Sindhu was looking to emulate the legendary Prakash Padukone and mentor Pullela Gopichand on Saturday. But her title hopes were dashed as the world No.3 went down in three games to Japanese second seed Akane Yamaguchi in the $1 million All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham on Saturday.
The Indian played a superb match but eventually went down to world No.2 Akane 21-19, 19-21, 18-21 in the semi-finals in the prestigious BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament. This was Sindhu’s fourth loss to Akane in 10 meetings.
Late on Friday night, HS Prannoy produced a gallant fight before going down narrowly to China’s Huang Yuxiang in the men singles quarterfinals.
In a nail-biting last eight match which swung too frequently, it was a miscued smash from the Indian that ended the gruelling contest 22-20, 16-21, 21-23 in favour of Huang after an hour and 17 minutes fight at the Arena Birmingham.
Locked 20-20 in the third game, Prannoy went for a smash with his opponent down on the floor but all he could do is send the shuttle to the net, a moment which will perhaps haunt him for sometime.
“That was one shot that I really should have got in,” said Prannoy after the heart-breaking loss.
“There are matches where you really don’t know what to do to get that one big point. It’s really disappointing. One point does big things in your life. I’m really disappointed to have not made the semi-finals here. It’s one of my big dreams to do so one day,” he said.
TOUGH OPPONENT
Up against an opponent who had beaten 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph and India’s Kidambi Srikanth in the last two days, Prannoy never let his guard down even for a moment.