Odense (Denmark), Oct 22 India's campaign in the Denmark Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 event came to a premature end on Friday with double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma losing in the quarter-finals.
Sindhu crashed out to South Korea's fifth-seeded An Seyoung in the women's singles quarter-finals while Verma retired with an injury after losing the first game 21-17 against Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia.
Sindhu, the reigning World Champion, lost in straight games to South Korea's An Seyoung 11-21, 12-21 in a 30 minutes encounter. the 26-year-old Sindhu, who had won a silver medal in Rio Olympics and followed it up with a bronze in Tokyo five years later, could not impose her game on her tough Korean rival as she conceded an early lead and could not catch up with the Korean.
World No. 7 Sindhu had taken a break after becoming the first Indian woman to win a second medal at the Olympics in Tokyo in August. She was playing her first event after the Olympics. The effect of the big break showed as she could not overcome her Korean opponent, who dominated the forecourt and did not allow Sindhu to play her usual game at the net.
Sindhu tried to change her tactics by trying to push An Saeyoung to the backcourt with high lifts but could not control her strokes and the Korean got the chance to attack her and win points.
In the men's singles quarter-finals, Verma had made a bright start against Sugiarto and had taken an early lead. But the Indonesian caught up with him and scores went neck-and-neck till 11 after which the Sugiarto surged ahead and went on to win the game at 21-17. Verma could not continue after that and retired.
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