Final blip for Sindhu; Srikanth out

Bali, December 3

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Already assured of a semifinals berth at the BWF World Tour Finals, India’s PV Sindhu today suffered a three-game defeat to top seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in her third and final Group A women’s singles match here today.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympics medallist, couldn’t apply enough pressure on world No. 10 Chochuwong to go down fighting 12-21 21-19 14-21 in an hour and 11 minutes. This was her third loss to the 2016 world junior champion Chochuwong in seven meetings.

Sindhu thus finished second in Group A, behind Chochuwong.

Earlier, Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the season-ending tournament after losing to second-seeded Malaysian Lee Zii Jia 19-21 14-21 in 37 minutes in his final Group B match. It was Srikanth’s second loss to the world No. 8 Malaysian, who had defeated the Indian in straight games at the Hylo Open.

Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, already out of contention for a berth in the semis, ended their campaign with a hard-fought 21-19 9-21 21-14 win over England’s Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith. — PTI