Chinese Masters: India's challenge ends with PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy's defeats

Changzhou, China: India’s campaign at the China Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament ended as P V Sindhu and H S Prannoy crashed out of the women’s and men’s singles after suffering straight-game defeats in their respective quarter-final matches in Changzhou on Friday. It was also curtains for star pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who went down to top seeded Chinese combination of Luo Ying and Luo Yu 11-21 14-21 in a 39-minute women’s doubles quarterfinal. Fourth seeded Sindhu was stunned 21-17 21-19 by Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in a match that lasted 38 minutes while Prannoy, seeded seventh, lost 10-21 15-21 to top seed Chen Long in a contest that lasted 46 minutes. [caption id=“attachment_2596528” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PV Sindhu. PTI[/caption] Sindhu conceded advantage thrice in the opening game. Despite managing to surge ahead three times, the Indian failed to win the first game. She first opened up a 4-1 lead but the Thai girl caught her at 4-4. Sindhu once again moved ahead to 7-4 and then to 13-10 but on both occasions she could not retain the upper hand. At 16-16, Porntip bagged three straight points to make it 19-16 before Sindhu pulled one point back, but the Thai wrapped up the opening game 21-17 in the end. In the second game, Sindhu yet again took the lead and continued to extend it to comfortably sit on 11-8 at the interval. But Porntip kept on breathing down Sindhu’s neck and came from behind to tie the game at 13-13 before taking a two-point lead. Thereafter, it was a closely-fought battle for some time and the two went on like that till 19-19. The Thai girl kept her nerves to reel off two significant points to seal the game and the match in her favour. Earlier, Prannoy lost his match to Long, which was his third defeat to the two-time World Champion and two-time All England champion. Prannoy, who had given a scare to Chen during their last encounter in Singapore Super Series early this month, failed to put up a fight today as, after an initial neck-and-neck battle, Chen moved ahead. In the opening game, Chen broke off from 6-6 to never look back, while in the second game, Prannoy had opened up a 6-0 lead but the Chinese reduced it to 6-9 and then reeled off eight straight points to surge ahead. The Chinese kept moving ahead and eventually sealed the issue without much ado