World No 4 PV Sindhu of India on Friday bowed out of the Australian Open Superseries after losing her quarter-final clash against the top-ranked Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in three games. Sindhu won the first game comfortably 21-10 and looked set to progress to the semi-finals, but Tai won a tight second game 22-20 before closing out the match by winning the third 21-16.
It was an incredible match of badminton with plenty of twists and turns throughout the one-hour duration. It was impossible to tell how those 60 minutes flew by as both players exchanged some amazing rallies. It was Sindhu’s attack versus Tai’s defence and, in the end, the player from Chinese Taipei showed just why she is the world No 1 by gritting out the win.
The first game began tightly, with Sindhu ekeing out a 11-8 lead at the interval. It looked like the game would go right down to the wire, but Tai just tanked in the second half, even as Sindhu won seven straight points to take it 21-10.
Tai has fought back to take a 5-2 lead against Sindhu in the second, before Sindhu fought back to make it 6-6 and went on to take a 11-8 lead at the break. Tai won six straight points to make it 16-13 in her favour, before Sindhu grabbed five consecutive points of her won to take a 19-18 lead. Sindhu had match point at 20-19, but she hit one out to squander it. Tai won the next point to get a game point and went on to win it 22-20 after Sindhu hit another one long.
The third game again began with both players exchanging great rallies and keeping up with each other. Sindhu held a slender 11-9 lead at the break, which was to become 14-10 in the Indian’s favour. Just when it looked like Sindhu would go on to win it, Tai switched on and won five straight points to make it but then it was the Indian’s turn to tank as Tai won 10 straight points to make it 15-14 in her favour.
Sindhu won a point back to make it 15-all, before Tai won the next five points to get as many match-point opportunities. Sindhu could only save one before the top seed closed out the match. This was Tai’s third straight win against Sindhu, who trails 3-7 in their head-to-head record.
Earlier in the day, K Srikanth won the all-Indian quarter-final against Sai Praneeth in straight games.
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