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The Indian challenge ended as PV Sindhu lost to Nozomi Okuhara in the semi-finals of the Super Level 500 Singapore Open played on Saturday.
The two-time World Championship silver medalist Sindhu, surrendered without putting up much of a fight, losing the match by 7-21, 11-21.
In the first game, the Indian, after just 15 minutes, was committing numerous errors and eventually lost the first set badly, 7-21.
The second game saw Sindhu trailing 1-3 before levelling the scores at 4-4. Okuhara then showed her class, earning six successive points as the Japanese led 11-5. After the interval, Sindhu committed more simple mistakes; hitting the shot out or at the net. The Japanese took more points in succession and never allowed the Indian back into the game, winning 21-11.
The Indian had a great rivalry with Nozomi Okhuara in the past. She was involved in an epic 2017 World Championship final with the Japanese player, which lasted for 110 minutes, and is considered one of the best women’s singles match in badminton history.
Sindhu holds a head to head record of 7-6. Her performance in the semi-finals, however, was not great, as the Indian made a lot of mistakes. This was Sindhu’s second semi-final of the year.
With Okuhara's win, the Indian challenge ended at the Singapore Open 2019. Singapore Open 2019 was however, a decent tournament for the Indians, as Sameer Verma, Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal, and the mixed doubles pair of Pranav Chopra and Sikki Reddy reached the quarterfinals stage.
Parupali Kashyap and HS Prannoy were knocked out in the second round, while Srikanth and Verma gave tough matches to higher ranked opponents before losing in the quarterfinals.
It was a decent performance by the Indian shuttlers at the Singapore Open 2019 and they will hope to improve on their performances in upcoming tournaments.
