Sindhu loses to Bingjiao again, Srikanth ousted

Fuzhou, November 9

PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were ousted from the China Open badminton tournament after losing their singles quarterfinals matches. While Sindhu yet again failed to get past China’s He Bingjiao in the women’s singles, Srikanth fell in straight games to world No. 3 Chou Tien Chen in the men’s singles event. Sindhu lost 17-21 21-17 15-21 to the eighth seeded Chinese. 

It was the Indian shuttler’s third consecutive loss to Bingjiao, who had defeated her this year at the Indonesia Open and French Open in July and October, respectively. Later, Srikanth lost 14-21 14-21 in 35 minutes to Chen, who has been in good form this season with three titles from five final appearances.

Sindhu frittered away an 8-3 advantage to lose the opening game but made a roaring comeback in the second before losing the decider after a late charge. Sindhu had started the match well to take a 4-1 lead in the first game before moving to 8-3 but Bingjiao managed to claw back at 9-9. At 15-15, the Chinese moved ahead with three straight points. Sindhu made it to 17-18 before Bingjiao pocketed the opening game. In the second game, Sindhu grabbed an 11-7 lead and closed out the game easily.

In the decider, Bingjiao managed to eke out a 15-8 lead before Sindhu produced a late charge to claw back to 15-16. But Bingjiao reeled off the remaining points to cement her place in the semifinals.

No challenge

In the opening game, Srikanth did well to grab a 10-8 lead but after the break Chen dominated the proceedings. In the second game, Srikanth was 4-10 down at one stage but produced a towering smash and two unforced errors from his rival took him to 7-10. A net error from Srikanth gave an 11-7 lead to Chen at the break. Lagging 11-18, Srikanth produced another smash to take a point but Chen soon had eight match points when the Indian hit long. Srikanth saved two match points before Chen sealed it with another precise return. — PTI

Sindhu vs Bingjiao 

• PV Sindhu has lost her last three matches vs the Chinese world No. 7
• 8-5: Is He Bingjiao’s career head-to-head record vs Sindhu. It was 5-5 at the start of this year
• Dec 2017: Was the last time Sindhu beat Bingjiao, at the World Superseries Finals in Dubai