Indians falter at semi-final stage at Malaysia Masters

P.V. Sindhu

New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS)

The Indian challenge came to an end as shuttlers P.V. Sindhu and Ajay Jayaram lost their respective semi-final matches at the season opening $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold on Saturday.

Second seed Sindhu, a winner here two years ago, faced a marathon battle against Japanese fourth seed Nozomi Okuhara which lasted an hour and 24 minutes at the Stadium Perpaduan Kuching.

After winning the second game and levelling the match, Sindhu ran out of steam to lose 21-19, 13-21, 8-21.

Later, Jayaram also gave a tough fight to South Korea's Jeon Hyeok Jin but eventually lost 21-1-, 17-21, 16-21 in 57 minutes.