Sindhu, Sameer out; Rankireddy scripts twin victories in doubles
BANGKOK: Error-prone PV Sindhu suffered a demoralising defeat in the quarter-finals 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 quarter-finals along with Ashwini Ponnappa and Chirag Shetty to keep India’s flag fluttering at the BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.
Sindhu looked a pale shadow of the player who had won the World Championship in 2019 as she committed too many unforced errors to go down 13-21,
9-21 against home favourite Ratchanok Intanon. “I made a lot of unforced errors and gave away easy points. I didn’t play my best today. It wasn’t my day,” Sindhu said.
In men’s singles, Verma’s run also came to an end after he squandered a match point to go down 13-21, 21-19, 20-22 to Danish
world No.3 Anders Antonsen. With the defeat of Sindhu and Sameer, Indian challenge in singles ended.
The doubles players, however, gave fans something to cheer as Rankireddy and Ponnappa upstaged world No.6 pair of Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia 18-21, 24-22, 22-20 after toiling hard for one hour and 15 minutes.
Later in the day, Rankireddy and Shetty saw off another Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 21-18, 24-22 in 37 minutes. “We’ve not competed in almost a year and coming back into tournaments, we’re meeting really good opponents. This win has given me a huge boost of confidence,” said Shetty.