Paris [France], August 29 : India's top shuttler PV Sindhu's campaign at the BWF World Championships concluded with a bitter defeat in the quarter-finals against Indonesia's Putri Kusuma Wardani.
World number 15 Sindhu was ousted by world number nine by 14-21, 21-13, 16-21 in a fixture that lasted an hour and four minutes. Throughout the contest, Putri played shots deceptively to make Sindhu cover the entire court. Sindhu tried to negate it with her long reach but lacked the composure to wrap up the game in her favour.
The pulsating contest began as a cagey affair with both shuttlers making a couple of unforced errors from the start, leaving them inseparable at 3-3. After an impressive counterplay, Putri took a narrow 6-8 lead over Sindhu and extended it to 7-11 at the halfway mark of the first game.
Sindhu tried to stage a comeback with four points on the trot but continued to trail by a five-point margin at 14-19. Sindhu's high return landed wide, forcing her to settle for a 14-21 defeat in the opening game of the quarter-final.
In the second game, Putri continued to overwhelm Sindhu on the net with her precise drop shot and levelled the scoreline at 2-2. Sindhu upped the ante to turn the tide in her favour and gained a massive six-point advantage at 9-3.
With a sublime drop shot, she kept a five-point advantage intact at the halfway mark of the second game. Putri continued to misfire as Sindhu raced to a massive 10-point advantage. With her trademark cross-court half smash, Sindhu took a step closer to wrapping up the second game and eventually achieved it with a smash on backhand to force the contest into the decider.
Putri maintained a defensive stance to counter Sindhu's aggression. In a 50-shot rally, she dealt with Sindhu efficiently but found the net and fell to a narrow 6-4 deficit. She continued to stay in the mix and brought the game level at 7-7 with a backhand shot, which caught Sindhu off guard.
The momentum oscillated like a pendulum with the duo edging past each other while scuffling for advantage. Putri eventually stole Sindhu's momentum at 11-12. She continued to build on it and sprinted out of the Indian's reach to book her place in the semi-finals with a 16-21 victory in the third game.
Earlier on Friday, the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto's journey also came to a close in the quarter-finals. The Indian duo went down to Malaysia's world number four pairing of Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei in straight games, 15-21, 13-21.
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