PV Sindhu ousted in semis; Lakshya in final

NEW DELHI: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out of the Yonex Sunrise India Open 2022, losing to Thailand's Supanida Katethong, the sixth seed, in the women's singles semi-finals here on Saturday.

Sindhu tried to fight back after losing the first game and took the match to the decider but her Thai opponent was too aggressive on Saturday and did not allow the top seed any chances. Sindhu struggled to find her length on Saturday and lost the match 14-21, 21-13, 10-21 in 59 minutes in the season-opener. Supanida took control of the first game soon after the initial exchanges to take a 7-1 lead and maintained a steady lead, not allowing Sindhu, who struggled to get a rhythm going, to narrow the gap. The second game was closely-fought with the Thai player catching up with Sindhu at 6-6 and 10-10 before the Indian claimed six consecutive points from 14-12 to win the game 21-13.

However, Supanida turned the tables on Sindhu in the decider and opened up a lead from 5-5 onwards to go on and win the third game 21-10.

Sindhu said the match turned against her at 6-6 in the decider when she had a chance of taking the lead but could not. "In the third set, from the beginning it was almost 6-all, over there I left the lead. After that, I should have taken a few points but she controlled things. She is a good player and earlier I have played against her in Bali (Indonesia Open 2021) and she is very good. her strokes are very deceptive. Overall. I should have controlled the shuttle more, that's what I felt," said Sindhu. India's hopes of winning the title at home now rest on Lakshya Sen and the doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag as they will figure in the finals on Sunday.

Lakshya Sen has reached the final coming back from a game down to beat Malaysia's Tze Yong Ng 19-21, 21-16, 21-12 and set up a clash with World Champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the summit clash.

This is Sen's maiden entry in the final of a BWF World Tour Super 500 event.

The top Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also booked a place in the final, beating the French combine of Fabien Delrue and William Villeger in straight games, 21-10, 21-18 on Saturday. In the men's singles semi-final against Tze Yong Ng, third seed Sen lost a close first game 19-21 in the semi-final but came back strongly to win the next two games 21-16, 21-12 to emerge victorious in just over one hour at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall here.

In the first game, Sen came back from 1-4 down to level scores at 4-4 before opening up a small lead at 10-7. It was an up-and-down affair as Yong fought back to level scores at 14-14 and though Sen again caught up with his rival at 17-all, the Malaysian capitalised on some errors by the Indian shuttler and won the first game.The second game was a close affair initially as the lead changed hands repeatedly before Sen took control of the proceedings after 12-12 and went on to win the game at 21-16. Sen displayed good show in the last game and won it 21-12. (IANS)

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