Thailand Open: Sindhu, Sameer crash out; Satwik-Ashwini enter semis

Bangkok: Ace Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma crashed out of the Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa entered the mixed doubles semifinals, here. 

Olympic silver medallist Sindhu bowed out of the badminton tournament after a 21-13, 21-9 loss to local favourite Ratchanok Intanon in the quarter-finals, 

“I think I made a lot of unforced errors and gave away easy points. I didn’t play my best, it wasn’t my day. Intanon is a great player and I was prepared for that. I was responding to all her strokes, but I was making mistakes. If I had won the first game, I think things would have been comparatively different,” Sindhu said after the game.

Meanwhile, Sameer Verma’s giant-killing run came to an end as he fell 13-21, 21-19, 20-22 to third-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a men’s singles quarterfinal contest.

With the defeat of Sindhu and Sameer, Indian challenge in singles competition ended in the tournament. 

However, it was not all bad for Indian badminton on Friday as the mixed doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa pulled off a memorable 18-21, 24-22, 22-20 win over fifth seeded Malaysian pair Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh in a nail-bitting quarterfinal contest which lasted for one hour and 15 minutes.

The Indian pair will face top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.

It was a double delight for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy when he took to the badminton court with Chirag Shetty as they beat Malaysians Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 21-18, 24-22 in the men’s doubles quarter-finals to enter semi-finals. (UNI)