Sindhu suffers shock defeat

Fuzhou, November 17

PV Sindhu’s hopes of winning the China Open second time in a row were dashed when she suffered a shock loss to China’s Gao Fangjie, a rather unknown player, in the quarterfinals here today. Sindhu seemed completely off-colour during the 38-minute duel with the 19-year-old Fangjie, who upstaged the world No. 2 21-11 21-10 in a lop-sided contest. Sindhu’s loss also brought an end to India’s campaign at the China Open, with Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy having bowed out in the pre-quarterfinals yesterday.

The 22-year-old from Hyderabad, who has been playing continuously for the last three weeks, at the Denmark Open, French Open and the National Championship in Nagpur, found the going tough today. She looked  exhausted and struggled to anticipate her opponent’s moves even as Fangjie kept varying the length of the shots and engaged in long rallies.

In the first game, Sindhu opened up a 2-0 lead but Fangjie fought back and entered the break with an 11-9 lead.  After the break, the Chinese teen raced away from Sindhu, gathering 10 of the next 12 points to pocket the game.

The second game, too, turned out to be a one-way traffic as the Indian found it hard to read Fangjie’s deceptive shots. Soon, the Chinese opened up an 11-6 lead. Sindhu committed too many unforced errors and continued to lag behind, and it wasn’t long before the Chinese took the game and the match.  Sindhu is scheduled to play at the Hong Kong Open next week. She had reached the final in the last edition and has a lot of points to defend. — PTI