Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu was sent crashing out of the All England Open on Thursday as South Korean star An Se Young got the better of her counterpart.
An Se triumphed in straight games 21-19, 21-11 against the 28-year-old Indian in the round of 16 of the prestigious event in the UK.
It was the Indian’s seventh successive loss to the indomitable An Se Young, who had become the first Korean woman singles player to win the World Championships last year.
The Korean won in Malaysia and France this season, while Sindhu is on a comeback trail after recovering from a left knee injury.
The Indian tried to attack but her 22-year-old opponent looked in a different league as she varied the pace of the rallies and used her repertoire of strokes well to come up trumps.
For Sindhu, things went downhill after the break in the second game as errors kept piling up.
Sindhu was up 4-1 but An Se Young started reading the game better and slowed down the rallies. She kept sending the tosses and clears, waiting for errors from Sindhu, who invariably sent the shuttle wide and long.
Soon the Korean was 9-6 up. She committed two unforced errors before charging to the net to put one away and when Sindhu faltered at the net it was 11-8 in favour of Young.
Sindhu kept the attack, producing a backhand push and a cross smash. The Korean, however, stayed solid in her defence to move to 13-10 and then 15-11 with another precise smash.
Sindhu tried to charge to the net and target her rival’s body but Young’s instinct helped her to survive twice as she sent the shuttle away.
From 13-17, Sindhu fought back to 16-17. But Young again pulled away with two points before grabbing four game points with a forehand drop.
Sindhu pounced one at net and then produced a tight smash on her rival’s forehand to stay alive. The Korean then slipped during a rally as Sindhu made it 19-20.
However, just in time, An Se Young sent a backhand sailing over Sindhu’s head to the backline to seal the opening game.
The second game started on a tight note before An Se Young opened up a three-point lead. While Sindhu struggled to get winners, Young kept varying the pace and sending everything back.
Another cross court smash took the Korean to 9-4. She grabbed a five-point lead at the interval with another incredible cross court net shot.
Frustration was piling for Sindhu as she wasted a video referral after going long by a big margin and dumped into net twice next as the Korean led 15-9.
Another backhand and a forehand return went to net as it became 10-18.
Two more unforced errors from the Indian helped An Se Young grab nine match points. She sealed the match with another lovely return at the front court.
In the women’s doubles event, Indian pair of Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda were also shown the exit door by Kie Nakanishi and Rin Iwananga of Japan.
The Indian duo went down 9-21, 9-21 to exit the tournament in the round of 32.
The other Indian pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa will play their Round of 16 tie against Yu Zheng and Zhang Shuxian later in the day, while the tope-rated men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will face off against the Malaysian pair of Bagas Maulana and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri.
Lakshya Sen will be up against Anders Antonsen in the Ro16 in the men’s singles event later in the day.
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