All over for India at All England

Sindhu and Saina crash out in straight games, ending the country’s challenge in the quarterfinals

The contest never took off – and suspicion immediately falls on the black taping under PV Sindhu’s right knee on Friday. Tai Tzu Ying is a difficult opponent on the best of days, but with indifferent fitness, she’s nigh impossible to beat and the Indian tamely exited 21-14, 21-10 in 35 minutes from the All England Open.

Later, India’s challenge at the Championship ended abruptly as Saina Nehwal also lost 22-20, 22-20 to Korean Sung Ji Hyun.

With even coaches Gopichand and Mulyo Handoyo not exerting much, Sindhu walked out frowning and shrugging after she struggled to crack the Chinese Taipei World No 1 and seemed resigned to the result after Plan A fetched her no dividends.

Tai Tzu is not No. 1 for nothing – she’s a once-in-a-generation challenge for her opponents and is in easily the form of her life. Twice in long rallies, when Sindhu showed intent to retrieve as if her life depended on it, she could nick a couple of points from the talented Tai.

But for the most part, Sindhu looked severely hampered on the day, her movement not the sharpest and claws not searing enough to intimidate her rival. Often caught out of position – mostly owing to that laboured movement – and rarely having her big smash at her disposal, Sindhu never could capitalise on the 9-5 lead in the first and after losing the opener, had very little in her legs to chase down Tai Tzu’s whiz shots in the second.

On a roll

This is the Taipese’s 15th week at No. 1, and she wore her poise like a classy champion who called the shots and didn’t need to yell above a whisper. Sindhu had picked her early points on high tosses, but Tai Tzu promptly began drawing her to the forecourt where all the bending and moving and awkward angles demanded springier movement from Sindhu – but very little appeared forthcoming.

Tai Tzu is a full 16 cms shorter than Sindhu but she negated all of the Indian’s reach advantage with her deception. There were casual backhand net flicks testing Sindhu’s dodgy lunge, and Tai played with Sindhu’s head keeping her rooted on 10 points in the opener, as she rattled off four straight points to take the lead at the changeover. The Tai Tzu drops were pristine – the racquet would be poised to play down the line and the shuttle would travel across with an almost invisible twitch of the wrist. While modern sport revels in putting pace on the ball or shuttle in this case – Tai Tzu excels at taking pace off the bird – she loves to keep it levitating in the air, sucking the intensity out of the opponent’s pace.

She did it more than once in the quarters – like a classical spinner giving the ball flight, and winning half the battle when

Express file PV Sindhu seemed to be hampered by an injury.