Sikki-sumeeth in semis; Sindhu loses

Madrid, March 29: P. V. Sindhu fought her heart out before going down narrowly to Thailand’s Supanida Katethong in the women’s singles quarterfinals of the Madrid Spain Masters Super 300 badminton tournament here on Friday.

Sindhu, who had finished runner-up in 2023, recovered from an early 4-8 deficit and saved multiple game points to grab the opening game, but she couldn’t go the distance as the sixth seeded Thai registered a 24-26, 21-17, 22-20 win after a see-saw battle. The two-time Olympic medallist, who was a favourite to win after the withdrawal of Spain Carolina Marin, lost her cool in the end, as she smashed her racquet on the court. She received a yellow card from the chair umpire.

A yellow card is just a warning for misconduct.

However, India’s husbandwife combo of N. Sikki Reddy and B. Sumeeth Reddy had a lot to cheer about as they notched up a 14-21, 2111, 21-17 win over Indonesia’s fourth seed Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto and Lisa Ayu Kusumawati to enter the mixed doubles semifinals.

The women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, seeded third, lost 13-21, 19-21 to sixth seeded Chinese Taipei’s Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun in the quarterfinals.

Sindhu had a 5-3 record against the world no. 17 Supanida with the two having played some exciting matches in the last two years.

It was as much a physical battle as of skills for Sindhu, who didn’t face much resistance in the initial rounds.

The start was slow for Sindhu as she found herself 3-7 behind at one stage but she rallied to pocket a threepoint advantage with a body smash and a fine net shot.

The rallies started getting tighter after resumption as Sindhu kept ahead at 14-10, but thereafter, momentum kept changing with Supanida grabbing two game points when Sindhu found the net. However, Sindhu unleashed two timely smashes to draw level. The Indian sent one long before producing a body smash as it was 21-21. —