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The Indian campaign came to a disappointing end in the quarter-finals of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open as both PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy departed from this Super 1000 tournament held at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno in Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday.
The third seeded Sindhu was very much off-colour and was upset 14-21, 15-21 by the eighth seeded He Bingjiao in just 37 minutes. The two had been tied at 5-5 in their head-to-head record prior to this showdown and that shows that the Chinese has always been a tough opponent for the Indian.
However, the Indian failed to show much resistance this time. The two were locked at 10-10 in the first game, following which Bingjiao simply accelerated and clinched the first game with consummate ease.
Sindhu had a much better start to the second game, but she failed to continue the momentum and squandered a 5-1 lead, allowing Bingjiao to come back and eventually complete the win.
The Commonwealth Games silver medallist had come to this tournament on the back of a fine show at last week’s Malaysia Open, where she made it to the semi-finals.
In men’s singles, HS Prannoy wasn’t able to repeat his heroics from last year. In 2017, the Kerala shuttler rode on a giant-killing run to reach the semi-finals, where he failed to make any use of five match points before bowing out.
This time, the Pullela Gopichand protégé started his challenge well, with a couple of three-game victories over Lin Dan and Wang Tzu Wei.
He could not show that same fighting spirit against the third seed and reigning All England Open champion Shi Yuqi. The Chinese emerged a 21-17, 21-18 winner in 39 minutes.
Yuqi led 11-8 at the mid-game interval in the first game before staving off a strong challenge from the Indian. In the second game, the two were on level terms till 7-7 and then the Chinese started looking the better of the two until Prannoy fought back to make it 17-17. That was all the eighth seed and World No. 14 could do before being shown the door out.
This was Shi Yuqi’s fourth victory over Prannoy in five meetings.
