Sindhu, Srikanth out of Malaysia Open

NEW DELHI The Indian campaign came to an end at the $700,000 Malaysia Open badminton tournament on Saturday as Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu lost their respective semi-finals in contrasting fashion in Kuala Lumpur. Sindhu went down 15-21, 21-19, 11-21 in 55 minutes to women’s singles world No 1 Tai Tzu Ying as the Chinese Taipei girl took a dominant 9-3 advantage in career meetings with the victory. The top seed has now won five successive matches against Sindhu, who last won against Tai at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Earlier, Srikanth went down in straight games to Kento Momota of Japan, who has been in sensational form since making a comeback after a one-year ban.

Srikanth lost 13-21, 13-21 to the world No 11.

INDIA CRUSH IRAN

DUBAI: Putting up another superlative show, India thrashed Iran 44-26 to emerge champions of the six-nation Kabaddi Masters Dubai on Saturday.

In a battle between the top two sides of the world, the three-time world champions did not give Iran any ground to recover with captain Ajay Thakur (nine points) and youngster Monu Goyat (six) leading the raid charts.

FALCONS IN UTT FINAL

KOLKATA: Romania’s Bernadette Szocs and Sweden’s Matilda Ekholm carried defending champions Falcons TTC into the final of the Ultimate Table Tennis, setting up a battle for the championship against Dabang Smashers. Szocs starred in two wins while Ekholm easily attained goal.

: