Bangkok [Thailand], January 27 (ANI): Indian shuttler PV Sindhu on Tuesday came up short in her first group-stage match in the World Tour Finals against Taiwan’s world number one Tai Tzu-Ying.
Tzu-Ying defeated Sindhu 19-21, 21-12, 21-17 to gain some winning momentum ahead of her next match. The 25-year-old Sindhu won the first game 21-19, and it was a hard-fought contest as both participants went back and forth, but in the end, the Indian shuttler won the first game to gain a slight advantage.
However, the second game got off to a contrasting start as Tzu-Ying changed her fortunes and she maintained pressure on Sindhu from the very start. The Taiwan shuttler gained an 11-4 lead in the second game, and Sindhu was left searching for answers. In the end, Tzu-Ying went on to win the second set 21-12, and the match went into a third and deciding game.
In the end, Sindhu did not manage to maintain her composure and she finally ended up losing the third and deciding game.
PV Sindhu is the only Indian to win the BWF World Tour Finals as she went all the way in 2018. Later in the day, Kidambi Srikanth would also be in action in the World Tour Finals’ first round. Kidambi and Sindhu are the only shuttlers from India in action in the ongoing tournament.
The tournament is played by the eight highest-ranked players in the World Tour rankings in each of the five events: men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.
The eight entries are then divided into two groups of four. The group matches are played in a round-robin format, with the top two finishers in each group progressing to the semis.
Sindhu had crashed out of the Thailand Open after losing to Ratchanok Intanon in the quarter-final clash last week while Srikanth had withdrawn from the tournament after his roommate Sai Praneeth tested positive for coronavirus. (ANI)