Badminton
Korea Open: PV Sindhu knocked out, loses to world rank 22
Indian shuttler PV Sindhu lost to Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the opening round of the Korea Open 2023.
PV Sindhu in action at the last edition of the India Open (BAI)
Double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu bowed out of Korea Open 2023 after losing to Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the first round on Wednesday.
In a game that went on for almost an hour, the Indian shuttler lost 18-21, 21-10, 13-21 to her Chinese Taipei opponent. Sindhu started the first game on a horrible note after going 2-8 down in the early exchanges.
Although she fought back after a terrible start, Pai easily won the first game 21-18. Sindhu came back strongly in the second game, starting the game with a lead of 9-1 in the earlier exchanges.
Pai failed to recover from the assault by the Indian shuttler and conceded the game 10-21.
The decider started on a balanced note with both shuttlers taking points off each other consistently. After the game was tied at 10-10, errors crept into the game of Sindhu and Pai took full advantage of it to lead 18-12.
A net error from Sindhu resulted in Pai winning the encounter 21-18, 10-21, 21-13. This is the second win for Pai over Sindhu in six encounters.
Yesterday, PV Sindhu recorded her lowest ranking in this decade after dropping to World rank 17.
With a new coach by his side, Sindhu will look to improve in the upcoming tournaments and find some consistency before Asian Games.
In other matches, world number 32 Priyanshu Rajawat defeated Korean shuttler Choi Ji Hoon in straight games 21-15, 21-19 in straight games. Priyanshu will face top seed Kodai Naraoka in the next round.
However, his compatriot Kiran George failed against a superior opponent and lost to Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei 17-21, 9-21. Mithun Manjunath also lost to his Malaysian opponent Ng Tze Yong in straight games 21-11, 21-4.
Aakarshi Kashyap, Tasnim Mir, Malvika Bansod, and Ashmita Chahila lost their respective matches in women's singles. Aakarshi lost to Zhang Yi Man 12-21,17-21 while Malvika Bansod went down against Tai Tzu Ying 17-21, 7-21.
Tasnim Mir lost to Kim Ea Gun of Korea 11-21, 18-21 while Ashimta lost to Chen Yu Fei of China 13-21, 12-21.
In mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy defeated Alvin Morada and Alyssa Leonardo of the Philippines in straight games 21-17, 21-17 while B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa suffered a 21-23, 21-13,12-21 loss against the Korean pair of Song Hyun Cho and Lee Jung Hyun.
