Press Trust of India
Malang, Dec 4: Top seed K Srikanth advanced to the semifinals in men’s singles but PV Sindhu suffered heartbreak as she bowed out of the women’s singles with a straight-game loss at the USD 1,20,000 Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here Friday.
World No. 9 Srikanth, who has qualified for the BWF Super Series Finals, emerged as the lone Indian survivor as he spanked 15th seed Malaysia’s Teck Zhi Soo, 21-10 21-5 in a match that lasted just 24 minutes.
The 22-year-old from Guntur, who had defeated China’s Qiao Bin 21-12, 21-15 in a late night match Thursday, will take on Indonesia’s Ginting Anthony.
Sindhu, who clinched the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold last week, suffered an unexpected 21-23, 13-21 loss against He Bingjiao of China in 36 minutes. She had beaten the player thrice earlier.
Srikanth dished out a superb game of badminton as he didn’t allow any chance to Teck to challenge his authority. The Indian opened up 6-0 and 5-0 lead in the first and second games, respectively and marched ahead without much ado to seal a semifinal place.
A lot was expected from Sindhu but the Indian could not stave the challenge from Bingjiao, who lead 10-5 in the opening game. Even though Sindhu managed to draw parity at 15-15 and then grab a slender 20-19 lead, the Chinese surged ahead to pocket the opening game after deuce.
In the second game, Bingjiao led 6-5 and then reeled off nine straight points to dash Sindhu’s hope of a comeback in the match. It seemed that the Indian shuttler had suddenly run out of breath as she committed a large number of unforced errors.
