PV Sindhu crashes out of Thailand Open after losing to Ratchanok Intanon

Top Indian shuttler PV Sindhu on Friday
crashed out of the Thailand Open, losing 13-21, 9-21 to Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon
in the quarterfinals.

Despite an early setback, Sindhu fought
back into the game, levelling the game eventually to a score of 13-all.

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“I made a lot of unforced errors
and I think that I gave away easy points. I didn’t play my best today. It
wasn’t my day,” PTI quoted a crestfallen Sindhu as saying after the match.

It was not enough to overcome the local
favourite, as Intanon, earning eight straight points to win the first
game, won the second game with an even bigger lead of 11 points.

Quite pale in the match, Sindhu faced
an early disadvantage due to Intanon grabbing onto a three-point lead and
controlling the length of the match quite effectively.

“Some of my lifts were going out
and going out of control. I was hitting with so much power sometimes. I should
have controlled things a lot more. If I had won the first game, I think things
would have been comparatively different,” the 2019 gold-medal winner at
the Badminton World Championship said.

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With eight straight points, Intanon secured
the opening game.

Going into the break, the Indian favourite
was a solid seven points behind her rival and caught up the pace afterwards,
leading to a 13-all score.

The Thai shuttler finished the game
off after the breather, gaining a huge 12 match point advantage before she finished
off the match.