Badminton
Arctic Open 2026: PV Sindhu bows out in a thrilling quarterfinal match
Sindhu lost a three-game, 62-minute match to world No. 5 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand.
PV Sindhu (Photo credit: BAI)
Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu fought hard before going down in three games against top seed and world No. 5 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the quarterfinals of the Arctic Open Super 500 tournament in Finland on Friday.
In their first meeting in four years, former world champion Intanon beat sixth-seeded Sindhu in a thrilling three-game encounter, 21-11, 19-21, 21-18 in a match that lasted one hour and two minutes.
With this win, Intanon leads Sindhu 10-4 in head-to-head record.
Earlier, Sindhu saw off Japan's Riko Gunji to advance to the quarterfinals of the women's singles competition.
Sindhu, the 31-year-old from Hyderabad, who won the Japan Open Super 750 title in July, notched up a 21-15, 21-15 win over Gunji in the second round.
Later in the day, the men's doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Pruthvi Krishnamurthi Roy also crashed out, losing to Denmark's Christian Faust Kjaer and Rasmus Kjaer 13-21, 14-21 in the quarterfinals.
With this, the Indian campaign has come to an end at the competition as they were the last remaining Indians in Finland.
(With inputs from PTI)