Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu suffered a narrow loss against Sayaka Sato of Japan in women’s singles to draw curtains on Indian campaign at Denmark Super Series premier.
In a battle of nerves, Sindhu went down fighting 13-21 23-21 18-21 to World No. 12 Sato in a second round match that lasted an hours and five minutes.
It was Sindhu’s first event after the Olympics and she will be back at French Open next week.
It was a bad day for India at Denmark as Ajay Jayaram and HS Prannoy also suffered losses in the second round of men’s singles competition.
Jayaram fought hard before going down 21-23 15-21 to Shi Yuqi of China, while Prannoy lost 10-21 20-22 to top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in a gruelling contest.
Sindhu fought back from 1-3 to lead 12-8 at one stage but she blew it as Sato marched ahead, reeling off six points and then grabbing seven straight points.
In the second game, Sindhu was 10-15 down but she didn’t give up and turned the tables after being tied 21-21 at one stage.
The decider was another tough battle as both the shuttlers went neck and neck till 18-18 when the Japanese surged ahead.
Feature image source: AFP
