Recently, the Thai shuttler became Sindhu's bogey player, defeating the ace Indian shuttler for the fifth time in a row.
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Indian shuttler PV Sindhu’s Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships title defence ended on Friday in Heulva, Spain, with a heartbreaking 17-21, 13-21 defeat to her nemesis Tai Tzu Ying. Recently, the Thai shuttler became Sindhu’s bogey player, defeating the ace Indian shuttler for the fifth time in a row (including at the Tokyo Olympics) and improving her head-to-head record to 15-5. Sindhu, India’s double Olympic champion, had hoped to break her record at the Palacio de los Deportes, but her challenge was called off after 42 minutes.
PV Sindhu had been in fine form this season, winning her second silver medal at the season-ending World Tour Finals in Indonesia after reaching the semifinals of the French Open, Indonesia Masters, and Indonesia Open. The 26-year-old was hoping to end the season with a successful defence of her first World Championship title, which she won two years ago in Basel, Switzerland, but Ying proved to be a tough nut to crack yet again.
TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2021
WS – Quarter final
21 21 Tzu Ying TAI?
17 13 ??V. Sindhu PUSARLA? in 42 minutes
https://t.co/Fxqa1IheXZ— BWFScore (@BWFScore) December 17, 2021
The BWF World Championships, which are being held after a one-year hiatus (they were not held last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic), have lost some of their lustre this time due to the withdrawals of the entire Indonesian contingent as well as other elite players such as two-time winner Kento Momota. After the withdrawals of three-time champion Carolina Marin and 2017 winner Nozomi Okuhara, the women’s singles field was also depleted. Saina Nehwal, the London Olympics bronze medalist and 2015 silver medalist, will also miss the Worlds for the first time in her career due to multiple injuries.
Sindhu advanced to the BWF World Championship 2021 women’s singles quarterfinals with a straight-game win over Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in Huelva, Spain on Thursday. The two-time Olympic medalist defeated the Thai shuttler 21-14, 21-18 in 48 minutes to book a meeting with Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei. Sindhu has won a whopping five World championship medals and she has made it to the quarterfinals on each of her seven attempts.
Sindhu took an early 5-1 lead but Chochuwong rallied to narrow the gap to 5-4 and then to 10-9. The Indian raced ahead from there on as she made it 15-10 and then 19-11 to pocket the first game. The second game was a tighter affair though the sixth seeded Indian went into the break with a 11-6 lead.
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