PV Sindhu lost her perfect record against Chinese shuttlers at the World Championships after a loss against World No 5 Wang Zhi Yi of China in the round of 16.
This is Sindhu’s first loss against a Chinese shuttler after winning on eight previous occasions.
The first game was a tale of two halves.
Before the mid-game break, both shuttlers decided not to give away any easy points. Wang made Sindhu work hard on her drops while Sindhu gave no space for Wang to produce a precise smash.
Wang led 11-8 at the mid-game break but after the break, Sindhu made six unforced errors and one misjudgement.
Wang cruised with her precise drops and smashes and won the first game convincingly 21-11 much to the dismay of the home crowd.
After Ayush Shetty lost to Alwi Farhan in the same court, the crowd anxiously waited for Sindhu to find her groove. In the second game, she found her groove from the first point and played with more patience than her first game.
She won four points while Wang struggled from the other side. Wang started drawing Sindhu into longer rallies where the Indian made a couple of mistakes.
However, Sindhu maintained her composure to trouble Wang with her dribbles and drops.
After the mid-game break, Sindhu and Wang played two energy sapping rallies. While Sindhu won the rallies, Wang took three consecutive points due to her errors after that to make it 15-15.
As the crowd noise went up, Sindhu didn’t disappoint them and took six consecutive points to win the second game 21-15. The last points included two winners from Sindhu and four shots from Wang that went out.
Going into the decider, Sindhu started confidently and took three points to lead 3-0. She hit three more winners to lead 8-4 but Wang made a solid comeback.
Sindhu committed three consecutive errors to make it 7-8 for Wang. Sindhu was leading 11-10 at the mid-game break.
After the break, Wang amped up the smashes but Sindhu held with her drops.
At 16-16, Wang fell down nastily and needed a medical break. However, after the break, Sindhu made four consecutive errors giving match point to Wang.
Wang produced a precise drop to break Indian hearts and end Sindhu’s pursuit of a sixth World Championships medal.