Badminton Asia Championships: Sindhu, Prannoy, Ashwini and Tanisha lose, Indian challenge ends

Indian shuttlers endured a horrid outing at the Badminton Asia Championships as PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy and the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto lost their respective pre-quarterfinal games on April 11.

Sindhu lost to Han Yue of China 18-21, 21-13, 17-21 while Prannoy went down to Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 11-21. In the women’s doubles pre-quarterfinals, the Japanese pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida beat Ashwini and Tanisha 17-21, 12-21.

Only Sindhu put up a valiant fight for one hour and nine minutes while the other two Indians surrendered meekly. It was incidentally Sindhu’s first loss to Yue against whom she had dominated in the past with a 5-0 record.

Sindhu started on a right note and raced to a quick 8-4 lead in the first game. It all looked hunky dory for the Indian as she started to dominate proceedings to quickly open up a 14-8 lead but a plethora of unforced errors and the inability to counter Yue’s game saw Sindhu lose points quickly.

After parity was restored at 15-15, Yue engaged Sindhu in long rallies and closed the first game in her favour.

Sindhu did well to stage a comeback in the second game as she used the depth of the court very well and brought out her ‘A’ game to win the second game with a comfortable 21-13 margin to force the decider.

She also took control of the proceedings in the decisive third game and led at 804 but soon was unable to counter Yue’s aggression. The long rallies tired Sindhu out and once she drew level on 10-10, the Chinese pressed on the accelerator.

Yue took a healthy lead at 17-10 and even though she lost a couple of points, she wrapped up the match 21-17.

In another men’s singles pre-quarterfinal match, Prannoy and Chun-Yi exchanged points to draw to an 8-8 scoreline in the first game. The Chinese Taipei player then turned the aggressor and took a 11-7 lead but Prannoy crawled back to 15-15 and then made it 18-18.

With the game hanging in balance, it was Chun-Yi who kept his cool and ensured there was no slip up as he wrapped the first game at 21-18.

Although Prannoy started the second game well, it was all one-way traffic as he lost the momentum, unable to read Chun-Yi’s game, and surrendered meekly in just 43 minutes.

In the women’s doubles encounter, Tanisha and Ashwini started well and opened up a 15-7 lead in the first game and extended it to 17-12. However, in a stunning display of badminton, the Japanese pair won the next nine points in a row to stun the Indians and the crowd.

The second game was all one-way traffic with Matsuyama and Shida taking the Indian challenge head on. Trailing at 4-14, the Indians tried to attempt a comeback but the lead was healthy enough for Matsuyama and Shida to wrap up the game in sensational fashion.