India’s PV Sindhu was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold by HE Bingjiao of China who beat the Indian 21-13 21-15 in Basel on Friday.
Right from the opening game, the Chinese looked in control of proceedings taking a 5-2 lead before Sindhu made a comeback to make it 10-10 but right from that point it was Bingjiao all the way as she won 6 straight points to make it 16-10 before eventually closing the game 21-13.
The second game observed a similar pattern as Bingjiao raced away to a 4-0 lead but Sindhu again fought back excellently to level the score at 5-5. However, the turning point in the contest came at the 8-8 mark when the Chinese won 5 straight points to break the Indian’s back and continued to chip away at regular intervals, not allowing the Indian to make any inroads in the tie to eventually close it down at 21-15 and romp into the final 4 of the competition.
The loss continues Sindhu’s topsy-turvy start to 2016, where she has won a title at the Malaysian Grand Prix Gold but remained inconsistent after that.
The exit of Sindhu means that only Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy remain the Indian contenders with a chance of winning the competition. Nehwal would be up against Sayaka Sato in her quarterfinals later in the evening while the latter will play his quarterfinal against Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in the final match of the day.
Final Scoreline- HE Bingjiao beat PV Sindhu 21-13 21-15
