PV Sindhu lost to Tai Tzu Ying in the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Masters 2022 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Sindhu lost to the Taiwanese 13-21, 21-12, 12-21 in a 55-minute clash.
HS Prannoy defeated Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama 25-23, 22-20 to book his spot in the semi-finals and is the only Indian left in the fray.
The Indian shuttler, ranked 19th, saved a game point in the opener and two game points after the change of ends against the world No 14 Japanese to script an impressive comeback. The 29-year-old Prannoy will now take on world No. 13 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong for a place in Sunday’s final.
Sindhu now has a dismal 5-17 record against the Chinese Taipei shuttler and has not beaten her since 2019. Earlier this month, Tai Tzu Ying knocked PV Sindhu out of the Malaysia Open quarter-finals.
The last time Sindhu had defeated Tzu Ying was en route to her 2019 World Championship gold in Basel.
It was business as usual for Tzu Ying as she rode on her precision and deceptive game to get past a fighting Sindhu, who once again flattered to deceive.
Tzu Ying made her intent clear from the start, as after an initial close duel, she managed to pull away from 10-9 to jump to 15-9 and held her fort to take lead in the match.
After the change of ends, Sindhu seemed to find her bearings as she galloped to a 11-4 lead and then kept a firm grip on the rallies to roar back into the contest.
The Indian carried her momentum into the decider, leading 7-3 at one stage and for a moment it seemed, perhaps, she has cracked the Tzu Ying code but the second seed once again managed to turn the tables around, grabbing a two-point cushion at the final break.
It was a one-way traffic after the interval as Sindhu’s unforced errors coupled with her rival’s brilliance saw the match tilt completely in favour of Tzu Ying, who zoomed to 19-11.
Another rally ended with the shuttle dropping right on the baseline as Tzu Ying held eight match points and converted it when Sindhu went to the net again.
On Thursday, Parupalli Kashyap and B Sai Praneeth — bowed out after losing their respective second-round matches in the BWF Super 500 badminton tournament. While Kashyap went down 10-21, 15-21 to Indonesian sixth seed Anthony Ginting, world bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth lost to Chinese shuttler Li Shi Feng 14-21, 17-21.
Earlier on Wednesday, Saina Nehwal suffered another early exit after losing to South Korea’s Kim Ga Eun 21-16, 17-21, 14-21.
The 32-year-old, who had also made a first-round exit from the Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament last week, is yet to progress past the second round in any competition this year.
World No. 30 Sameer Verma lost to world No. 4 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-10, 12-21, 14-21 to make an early exit from the men’s singles event. In the women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy lost to Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi 21-19, 18-21, 21-16.
(With inpus from Agencies)
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