Indian shuttler P V Sindhu’s woeful run against world number one An Se Young continued as she suffered a straight-game defeat against the Korean in the women’s singles quarterfinals of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament on Friday.
The two-time Olympic medallist lost 14-21, 13-21 in just 38 minutes to the 23-year-old Korean, who recently won gold at the Paris Games. This marked Sindhu’s eighth consecutive defeat to An, against whom she is yet to record her first victory.
She made a slow start, falling behind 1-6, but reduced the gap to 5-9 with a well-placed cross-court drop.
However, An used her trademark smashes to open up an 11-5 lead at the interval. Sindhu managed to close in at 11-14 but the Korean maintained her grip and sealed the opener when the Indian buried one into the net.
In the second game, Sindhu briefly led 3-2 but An soon regained control. The Indian tried to push with attacking play and trailed 7-8, but the An’s superior deception and variety helped her go into the break 11-7 ahead. An pulled away to 14-7 after resumption and never looked back.
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Sindhu played some fine front-court drops and round-the-head smashes to gather a few points but the Korean was always a step ahead. The Korean grabbed eight match points with a cross-court smash and sealed it when Sindhu erred again.
The Korean grabbed eight match points with a cross-court smash and sealed it when Sindhu erred again.
