Badminton Asia Championships: PV Sindhu wins bronze after controversial semifinal loss against Yamaguchi

The ace Indian shuttler, PV Sindhu, had to settle for the bronze medal at the ongoing Badminton Asia Championships 2022 after she fell to a hard fought 21-13, 19-21, 16-21 loss in 1 hour 6 minutes to Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the semifinal.

The double Olympic medallist started off in a dominating fashion pocketing the first game 21-13 in just 16 minutes as Yamaguchi seemed to be completely out of sorts. The Indian continued her domination in the second game as well, leading 11-6 at the mid-game break. But, things went downhill soon after.

A controversial umpiring decision where Sindhu was robbed of her serve for taking "too long to get ready", seemed to have put her off the track as Yamaguchi upped her game with and displayed some great aggression to take the second game 21-19 and force the match into a decider.

In the decider, the top seeded Japanese star started from where she left off previously and took an early 3-0 lead. Sindhu was playing only catch up from that point as Yamaguchi ensured she does not gift away easy points. The Indian did come close to levelling things up a couple of times, but Akane Yamaguchi ensured a safe passage to the final taking some calculated risks along the way.

Sindhu loss in the semifinal today means that India's age long search for a finalist at the Badminton Asia Championships continues. The last time the BAC had an Indian representation in any final was when the country's men's doubles pair of Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi achieved the feat way back in the year 1978.