Rio Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu lost a hard-fought quarter-final battle 21-10, 20-22, 16-21 to world number one Tai Tzu Ying at Australian Open 2017 badminton on Friday.
The Indian shuttler started the match on a high, clinching the first game without breaking a sweat against her opponent, who had won five Superseries titles on the trot before her quest for the sixth came to an early end at Indonesia Open 2017.
The second game saw fortunes fluctuate as both shuttlers were involved in hard-fought exchanges to gain supremacy. Tai trailed Sindu 13-10 right after the mid-game break but she came up with six straight points and also saved a match point before forcing a decider.
The pressure was on the Indian shuttler as the numero uno brought out her deceptive game, to which not a lot of shuttlers have had answers in the recent past. Sindhu once again started the decider well, but Tai turned on the beast mode to win 10 of the last 11 points to complete one of the remarkable comebacks in the recent past.
The Indian shuttler has now failed to cross the quarter-final hurdle for the fourth time this season as she had previously fallen in the last-eight round of All England Badminton Championships, Singapore Open, Badminton Asia Championships this year. The 21-year-old was knocked out as early as in the second round of Indonesia Open last week after shock loss to the United States' shuttler Beiwen Zhang.
Defending champion Saina knocked out
Saina Nehwal also faced a quarter-final exit after losing to sixth seed Sun Yu of China 21-17, 10-21, 21-17 in the match, that extended to an hour and 19 minutes.
The two-time champion was trailing Sun for most part of the game and a late comeback was not enough for the Indian shuttler go past the line. While Saina dominated the second game with ease, it was shocking to see her lose focus in the decider.
Notably, this was the first time in four meetings at the Australia Open, Sun had defeated Saina. Also, the two-time champion headed into the game with a 6-1 head-to-head record over the Chinese shuttler, but numbers did not matter as Sun book her berth in the semi-final putting an end to India's Women's singles campaign in Sydney.
Srikanth avenges Singapore Open defeat
On the other hand, Kidambi Srikanth avenged his Singapore Superseries defeat to Sai Praneeth with a hard-earned win over his lower-ranked compatriot in an all-Indian quarter-final earlier today.
In what was their seventh career meeting, the world number 11 needed 43 minutes to beat Praneeth 25-23, 21-17 in straight games and make his way into a third straight Superseries semi-final.
Notably, Srikanth was denied a title in Singapore by Praneeth, who won the final after coming back from behind 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 in a 55-minute battle. However, the experienced campaigner made sure there were no such slip-ups in Sydney to successfully exact revenge on his compatriot.
In what was a topsy-turvy opening game, Srikanth went into the break with only a one-point lead, which vanished soon after. The 24-year-old trailed Praneeth 16-13, but fought back to claim three match points, all of which were saved. However, the Indonesia Superseries Premier winner held his composure to take the early lead and capitalised on it in the second game.
Notably, Srikanth came into the match with a lot of confidence following his second-round win over world number one Son Wan Ho, whom he had defeated for the second time in a week on Thursday.
.@srikidambi after India Open second round exit.
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) June 23, 2017
Played - 14
Won - 12
Amazing consistency! #AustraliaSS semis calling.
Srikanth is among the tournament favourites despite the presence of top-ranked stars of the likes of Lin Dan and Chen Long. The 2015 China Open winner has taken his consistency to a higher level since reaching the final of the Singapore Open in April. He then went on to win his second Superseries Premier title in Indonesia last week, beating the likes of Jan O Jorgensen and Son en route to the top step of the podium.
Srikanth will face the winner of the second quarter-final between fourth seed Shi Yuqi and defending champion Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. The Indian shuttler had defeated the former in the quarter-final of the Singapore Open.
