Fuzhou (China): PV Sindhu’s title defence lay in tatters as she suffered a shock 11-21, 10-21 straight-game defeat to unknown Chinese Gao Fangjie in the quarterfinals of the China Super Series Premier badminton tournament here Friday. Her defeat in just 38 minutes ended India’s campaign at the tournament.
The 22-year-old from Hyderabad who has been playing continuously for the last three weeks found going tough as she looked completely exhausted and struggled to anticipate her opponent’s moves even as Fangjie kept varying the length of the shots and engaged the Indian in long rallies to dominate proceedings.
In the first game, Sindhu led briefly 2-0 before Fangjie took control to lead 11-9 at the interval. After the mid-game interval, the Chinese teen just raced away gathering 10 of the next 12 points to pocket the opening game.
The second game too was a one-way traffic as Sindhu found it hard to read Fangjie’s deceptive strokes. The Indian’s movements were also not as smooth and that resulted in Fangjie jumping to an 11-6 lead at the interval.
After the break, the story remained the same as Sindhu continued to commit unforced errors. Soon Fangjie was leading 20-9 and it was all over bar the shouting for the Indian. Sindhu saved one match point, but Fangjie sealed up the issue with a deceptive smash.
Sindhu is scheduled to play at the Hong Kong Open next week. She had reached the finals in the last edition and has a lot of points to defend.
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