PV Sindhu's title defence lay in tatters after suffering a shock straight-game loss to hitherto unknown Chinese Gao Fangjie in the quarter-finals of the China Superseries here yesterday
PV Sindhu's title defence lay in tatters after suffering a shock straight-game loss to hitherto unknown Chinese Gao Fangjie in the quarter-finals of the China Superseries here yesterday. Sindhu seemed completely off-colour during her 38-minute duel with the Fangjie,19, who upstaged her fancied World No. 2 rival 21-11, 21-10 in a lop-sided contest.
PV Sindhu
Sindhu's loss drew curtains on India's campaign at the China Open, following the ouster of Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy in the pre-quarterfinals yesterday. The shuttler form Hyderabad, who has been playing continuously for the last three weeks, participating in the Denmark Open, French Open and the National Championship in Nagpur, found the going tough. She seemed exhausted and struggled to anticipate her opponent's moves even as Fangjie kept varying the length of the shots and engaged in long rallies to dominate the proceedings.
The Indian's movements were also not as smooth and she also committed too many unforced errors and continued to lag behind as the Chinese went on to win the game. Sindhu is scheduled to play at the Hong Kong Open next week.
