Current world champion PV Sindhu of India had to face disappointment once again at the BWF World Tour Finals as she lost in her second match of Group-A. The ace Indian shutller had to suffer a loss at the hands of World number 2 Chen Yu Fei of China. Earlier in her first match, Sindhu suffered a similar fate against Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.
In the second match, the Chinese defeated Sindhu 20-22 21-16 21-12. Fei’s dominance over Sindhu was clearly visible as the Chinese was ahead 9-6 and then 17-12 in the first game. However, Sindhu then made a good comeback and brought the score to 17-18, but the Chinese player again took the lead and took the score to 20-17. Sindhu then scored three points on the trot as she levelled the score 20-20. From here on the Olympic silver medalist took full advantage of her experience and won the first game 22-20 with two consecutive points.
In the second game, the Indian player raced away with an early 4–1 lead, but the Chinese made a strong comeback to bring the score to 4-4. After this, both the players were again tied at 7-7. From here on, the Chinese showed her class to take four-point lead and went into the break with a score of 11-7. After this, Chen Yu Fei was ahead 20-14 at one time and then she did not allow a comeback by Sindhu and won the game 21-16 to force a decider.
In the third and decisive game, both the players got off to a strong start and played a strong game. As a result, the score was levelled at 10-10 at one time, but Yu Fei did not let the world champion progress from here as she scored 8 points of the nine points after the lemon break to take an 18-12 lead and eventually get herself plenty of match points and win the game and the match on her first one. This is Fei’s fourth win against Sindhu, while Sindhu has managed to win against Fei six times.
After losing their first match of Group A, Sindhu’s semi-final stage has become extremely difficult. She now has to play only one match in her group, which she will play against China’s He Bing Jiao on Friday. Sindhu had not lost a single match in her last World Tour Finals.
