All England Open: PV Sindhu fades away in semis

Sindhu, the Olympic silver medallist, couldn't match the pace, power and precision of her younger world number 11 rival Chochowong and lost 17-21 9-21

Birmingham: Reigning world champion P V Sindhu suffered yet another semifinal defeat at the prestigious All England Championships as she went down tamely in straight games to Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the women’s singles here on Saturday.

Sindhu, the Olympic silver medallist, couldn’t match the pace, power and precision of her younger world number 11 rival Chochowong and lost 17-21 9-21 in a match that lasted 43 minutes. The world no. 7 Indian had also lost at the semifinal at the 2018 edition as well.

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Sindhu came into the semifinal contest with an overwhelming 4-1 head-to-head lead over the 23-year-old Chochuwong, whom she had beaten at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals in January. But all that statistics didn’t matter as Chochowong showed immaculate defence and played at a searing pace to outclass the Indian.

On Friday night, Sindhu, seeded fifth, had defeated Japan’s third seed Akane Yamaguchi 16-21 21-16 21-19 in an intriguing quarterfinal match to make it to the last eight stage. Sindhu had battled for an hour and 16 minutes to eke out her first win over world number five Yamaguchi in last four meetings.