Tame end for Sindhu, Saina

Kuala Lumpur, January 10

PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Malaysia Masters after being outplayed by familiar foes in the quarterfinals, ending the country’s campaign in the tournament.

Sindhu, who took the court first, was knocked out by top seed Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei, while Saina was shown the door by Carolina Marin.

Saina was no match for Marin, who took half-an-hour to dispose off the Indian’s challenge 8-21 7-21. Tzu-ying, ranked second in the world, defeated Sindhu 21-16 21-16 in the quarterfinal, extending her head-to-head record to 12-5. This was Sindhu’s second consecutive loss to Tzu-ying. Sindhu had lost to her in the French Open quarterfinals in October last year. Sindhu failed to capitalise on her leads and eventually lost the first game 16-21 to hand a 1-0 advantage to Tzu-ying. In the second game, Sindhu could do little as Tzu-ying completely dominated the proceedings from start to finish. Trailing 11-20, Sindhu saved six matchpoints but it came too late as Tzu-ying sealed the game 21-16.

No match

Saina was outplayed by Marin. Saina and Marin were 6-6 in head-to-head record before Friday’s match. Marin took the lead early in the first game at 10-6 and simply outsmarted the Indian to pocket the first game. In the second game, Saina committed a lot of unforced errors, allowing Marin to run away with the match and a place in the semifinals. — PTI

PBL-V last leg IN Hyderabad

New Delhi: The last leg of the Premier Badminton League (PBL-V) season 5 has been shifted from Bengaluru to Hyderabad. Hyderabad, which was supposed to host matches from January 29 to February 4, will now host 15 matches including the semifinals and the final.