Sindhu, Saina knocked out of Malaysia Masters

Tai Tzu Ying beat Sindhu 21-16, 21-16 in the quarterfinal, extending her head to head record to 12-5 while Saina Nehwal lost to Carolina Marin 8-21 7-21.

World champion P. V. Sindhu lost to Tai Tzu Ying to crash out of the Malaysia Masters.

Reigning world champion P V Sindhu was knocked out of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament after losing in straight games to top seed Tai Tzu Ying here on Friday.

The Chinese Taipei world number 2 beat the Indian 21-16, 21-16 in the quarterfinal, extending her head to head record to 12-5.

This was Sindhu’s second consecutive loss to Tzu Ying. She had lost to her at the quarterfinals of the French Open in October last year.

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Sindhu was erratic in the start, failing to capitalise on her leads and eventually lost the first game 16-21 to hand a 1-0 advantage.

In the second game, Sindhu could do little as Tzu Ying completely dominated the proceedings from start to end.

Trailing 11-20, Sindhu saved six match points but it was a case too little too late as Tzu Ying sealed the game 21-16.

Saina bows out

Later in the day, Saina was outplayed by Marin. Saina and Marin were 6-6 in head-to-head before Friday’s match.

London Olympics bronze-medallist, Saina was on the backfoot from the start as Marin took the lead early in the first game at 10-6 and simply outsmarted the Indian to pocket it.

In the second game, there was no change of fortune for Saina, who committed a lot of unforced errors allowing Marin to run away with the match.