India’s campaign at the USD one million China Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament drew to an end following the defeats of its top-ranked shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth in the quarter-finals on Friday.
In contrasting defeats, Srikanth went down in straight sets without a fight losing 9-21, 11-21 against Kento Momota of Japan in a lopsided contest. Sindhu though put up a tough fight bouncing back from a set down to take the game to a decider, before eventually going down 11-21, 21-11, 15-21 against China’s Chen Yufei to bow out of the competition.
Seeded third, Sindhu, who struggled her way into the quarters lost the opening set 11-21 failing to put up a tough fight against the fifth-ranked Chinese. She, however, came back in the second set to take the game into the decider. But Yufei was relentless and despite the third game being a close affair, the Chinese raced her way to a 21-15 victory to book her place in the semis.
Also Read: China Open: PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth scrape through into quarter-finals
Meanwhile, Srikanth, who prior to this contest had a 3-7 head-to-head record against Momota, failed to better the record losing 9-21 11-21 to the world No.2. It was Srikanth’s third defeat to the Japanese in the ongoing year following the Malaysia Open and Indonesia Open loss.
The World No.8 fell behind 1-5 in the opening exchanges but recovered well to reduce the deficit to one point standing at 4-5 with three straight points. His fightback, however, didn’t last long as Momota surged to a huge 19-6 lead before pocketing the first game.
It was the same in the second game as Momota moved from a one-point advantage at 4-3 to a 10-point gap at 13-3 after clinching nine straight points. Srikanth tried his best but the gap was too big to produce a come-back and he eventually went down 11-21 to end his stay at the tournament.
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Image Source: NDTV Sports