Badminton Asia C'ships: P. V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sameer Verma crash out

The three were knocked out in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Saina Nehwal (in picture) fought hard in in her quarterfinal duel with Akane Yamaguchi. Photo: AFP

India's campaign at the Badminton Asia Championships — in singles — ended after P. V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Sameer Verma were knocked out in the quarterfinals here on Friday.

Taking the court first, Saina put up a tough fight but could not avoid a 13-21, 23-21, 16-21 defeat at the hands of third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. The match lasted an hour and nine minutes. Saina, seeded seventh here, had needed just 38 minutes to get the better of Kim Ga Eun of Korea to enter the last eight round on Thursday.

Much was expected from Sindhu, the fourth seed and the World No. 6, but she was stunned by an unseeded local girl Cai Yanyan. Sindhu looked a pale shadow of herself and was blown away 19-21, 9-21 by Yanyan. She went down in just 31 minutes against her Chinese opponent, who is ranked 11 places below the four-time world championship medallist. It was Sindhu’s maiden loss against Yanyan.

Marathon duel

The quarterfinal duel between Saina and Yamaguchi was a marathon one with both the players matching each other stroke for stroke till the first 10 points of the opening game before the Japanese won eight straight points to take the lead. It was a close affair between the duo in the second game as well. Locked at 21 apiece, Saina struck two consecutive winners to level the contest.

Saina continued the good work and raced to a 7-2 lead in the decider which she later extended to 14-11 before Yamaguchi roared back into the contest to surge ahead 17-14. The Japanese never looked back from there and closed down the contest by winning the decider 21-16.

Contrasting games

After Saina’s ouster, the onus was on Sindhu to keep India’s flag flying but she was completely out of sorts. Sindhu produced some fight in the opening game before losing it. But in the second game, Sindhu was completely outplayed by her lower-ranked Chinese opponent, who just ran away with the game after the first seven points.

In a men’s singles quarterfinal match earlier in the day, Sameer suffered a 10-21, 12-21 loss to second seed Shi Yuqi of China.