MIXED FEELING
Big gun Sindhu exits but mixed pair Satwik-Ashwin enters semis
Bangkok, Jan. 22: Errorprone P. V. Sindhu suffered a demoralising defeat in the quarterfinals while Sameer Verma’s gallant fight too ended in agony at the Thailand Open here on Friday.
However, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy claimed twin wins in mixed and men’s doubles quarterfinals along with Ashwini Ponnappa and Chirag Shetty to keep India’s flag fluttering at the badminton World Tour Super 1000 tournament here.
Sindhu looked a pale shadow of the player who had won the world championship gold in 2019 as she committed too many unforced errors to go down 13-21, 9-21 against home favourite Ratchanok Inthanon.
“I made a lot of unforced errors and I think that I gave away easy points. I didn’t play my best today. It wasn’t my day,” a crestfallen Sindhu said.
In men’s singles, Sameer’s giant-killing run also came to an end after he squandered a match point to go down 13-21, 2119, 20-22 to world no. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a quarterfinal contest.
With the defeat of Sindhu and Sameer, Indian challenge in singles competition ended in the tournament.
The doubles players, however, gave fans something to cheer as Satwik and Ashwini upstaged world no. 6 pair of Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia 18-21, 2422, 22-20 after toiling hard for one hour and 15 minutes.
“We have played them three times. We have won twice and lost once. We were confident. We knew our main strength would be our attack. They were under pressure. We kept
● Olympic silver medallist P. V. Sindhu was a pale shadow of herself and was outclassed by Malaysia’s World No. 92 Kisona Selva-duray 21-10, 21-12 in the women’s singles second round of the Thailand Open.
The Indian men’s doubles and mixed doubles pairs are in the semifinal of a Super Series. The mixed doubles pair has gone into the last 4 for the first time. The men’s pair are on course to defend their win from last year.
fighting. We had our chances and never messed up,” Satwik said.
Later in the day, Satwik and Chirag saw off another Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 2118, 24-22 in 37 minutes.
The Indian men’s doubles and mixed doubles pairs are in the semifinal of a Super Series. The mixed doubles pair has gone into the last 4 for the very first time and the men’s doubles are on course to defend their sensational win from last year.
Earlier, Sindhu looked awfully out of form as she was all at sea against Ratchanok, a former world champion.
“Some of my lifts were going out and going out of control. I was hitting with so much power sometimes. I should have controlled things a lot more. If I had won the first game, I think things would have been comparatively different,” she said.
MARIN BREEZES INTO SEMIFINALS
Spanish fifth seed and former world number one Carolina Marin sailed through to the semi-finals, beating Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit 21-6, 21-15.
Marin is aiming for back-to-back titles in this week’s tournament — the second of three consecutive events in Bangkok
that culminate in next week’s World Tour Finals. She came out on top last week against top-seeded Tai Tzu-ying, and continued her winning streak on Friday — despite Yigit holding a brief lead in the second set.
“I wanted to keep going, keep fighting and keep the focus on what I needed to do, even when Yigit was leading,” said Marin.
World no. 6 Marin will be facing off in the semifinals against South Korean An Se-young, a formidable teenager who was awarded “Most Promising Player” in 2019.
They already duelled in last week’s tournament, with the more experienced Marin winning 2118, 21-16.