Birmingham [UK], March 14 : India's ace shuttler PV Sindhu suffered defeat at the hands of the reigning world champion An Se Young of Republic of Korea in the second round of the women's singles at the All England Open on Thursday.
The two-time Olympic medallist lost to the Korean shuttler 21-19, 21-11 in the round of 16 of the BWF Super 1000 event. Overall, this marked Sindhu's seventh loss against An Se Young in the same number of matches.
Ranked 11th in the badminton rankings, Sindhu exercised control by using the court to the optimum advantage at the beginning of the first game which allowed her to take a 4-1 lead. However, An Se Young bounced back quickly to equalise at 4-4 and then take an 11-8 lead at the mid-game interval.
The Korean shuttler effortlessly dealt with Sindhu's aggressive play by relying on blocks and accurate placement which allowed her to take a six-point advantage at 17-11.
The former world champion, Sindhu, pulled out a couple of commanding smashes to reduce the deficit to just one point at 20-19. But An Se Young managed to see out the game and go one up in the match.
In the second game, Sindhu managed to win the first couple of points. However, Se Young's ability to shift through gears effortlessly proved to be a challenge that Sindhu couldn't overcome. The deficit proved to be too much after the mid-game interval and she eventually lost the match in 41 minutes.
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