Badminton: PV Sindhu Loses All England Open 2021 Semifinal Against Pornpawee Chochuwong in Straight Games, Knocked Out of Tournament
India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu’s dream run in the ongoing All England Open Badminton Championships came to an end as she suffered a heartbreaking defeat in her women’s singles semifinal against Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand on Saturday. Sindhu, who was seeded fifth in the Super 1000 tournament, failed to bring her A-Game on the court and was beaten in straight games 21-17, 21-9 by the world No. 11 Thai in just 45 minutes. With this, India’s campaign in the coveted All England Open came to end. With Carolina Marin and Tai Tzu Ying not a part of the tournament, this was Sindhu’s big chance to win the elusive title.
Eyeing to become India’s first woman shuttler to win the All England crown, the reigning world champion Sindhu struggled from the very start to match Chochuwong’s pace and often misread the guile. Chochuwong’s ability to turn defence into a winner helped her to diffuse Sindhu’s raw power and height advantage in the high-voltage semifinal clash in Birmingham.
In the first game, Sindhu started slowly and took time to come out of blocks. Pornpawee made full use of that and sent the Indian to all parts of the court. However, midway through the game, Sindhu found her stride and started pushing Chochuwong. She showed better control of the shots and got the Thai stranded on occasions. But a couple of costly errors titled the game in favour of Chochuwong and she sealed it 21-17.
The second game started on a quick note once again and the Thai made Sindhu pay for her silly errors. She took a 7-3 lead over the Indian. Sindhu struggled to find rhythm and at times had no answer for Chochuwong’s deceptive gameplay. The world no.11 Chochuwong was on top of the proceedings and took an 11-4 lead into the break.
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shuttler @pvsindhu1 ends her @allenglandofficial challenge, after she went down in the Semi-finals against ‘s Pornpawee Chochuwang .
Final Scores: 1️⃣7️⃣-2️⃣1️⃣, 9️⃣-2️⃣1️⃣
Comeback stronger, Sindhu#AllEnglandOpen2021#badminton pic.twitter.com/O6QdVcRqji
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) March 20, 2021
Till the very end, Sindhu couldn’t script a turnaround and surrendered the second game with a scoreline of 9-21. Chochuwong won the semifinal and booked her maiden appearance in the final of All England Open 2021.
She will take on the winner of the second semifinal which will be played between Nozomi Okuhara and Ratchanok Intanon on Sunday.
Earlier, Sindhu had beaten Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in an intriguing women’s singles quarterfinals on Friday. The Indian staged a remarkable comeback after losing the opening game to notch up a 16-21, 21-16, 21-19 win over Yamaguchi in a pulsating contest that lasted an hour and 16 minutes She came into the match with a 10-7 head-to-head count against the Japanese even though she had lost the last three meetings.
This was Sindhu’s first win in last four meetings with Yamaguchi.
“I am playing against her after quite a long time, I think 2019. We haven’t played at all. I’m sure she would have trained very hard. Today’s match was a good, tough long match I would say,” Sindhu said.