P.V. Sindhu suffered a straight-game defeat in the second round of the Australian Open, in what turned out to be a dismal day for Indian shuttlers at Sydney.
Olympic and world championship silver medallist Sindhu was the last to fall, following the ouster of compatriots Sameer Verma, B. Sai Praneeth and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
Sindhu, who is still looking for her first title this season, lost 19-21, 18-21 to Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol in a 49-minute match.
World number five Sindhu was pegged back 1-5 in the first game but she recovered to grab a slender 11-9 advantage at the break. Jindapol, however, came back to erase the deficit and move to a 16-12 lead. Sindhu battled hard till 19-19 before Jindapol closed the opening game in her favour.
The Indian revived hopes of a reversal when she led 14-11 at one stage, but Jindapol once again came back strongly, ekeing out an 18-14 advantage. Sindhu narrowed the lead to 18-19 but Jindapol soon shut the door on her rival.
The Hyderabadi shuttler’s best performance this season has been a semifinal place at the India Open Super 500 tournament.
Earlier, world number 12 Sameer went down 16-21, 21-7, 13-21 to Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei, while Praneeth put up a brave fight in the opening game before surrendering 23-25, 9-21 to second seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in a 42-minute clash.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag lost to second seeds Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen, 19-21 18-21 in a close contest.
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