New Delhi: Two-time World Championships bronze medallist PV Sindhu squandered a one-game lead to go down 21-15 15-21 15-21 against Korean Bae Yeon Ju in their quarterfinals in New Delhi on Friday.
This was Sindhu's third loss to the Korean.
Sindhu started with a compact game as she lead 11-6 at the break and continued her good run. Eventually, Bae hit the net to give a 20-13 lead to Sindhu. After conceding two points, the Indian sealed it with a smash.
In the second game, Bae opened up an 11-8 lead at the interval and reeled off five straight points to reach 16-8. However, Sindhu slowly reduced the margin to 13-19 but another long shot gave Bae a 20-14 lead. The Indian saved one game point before she hit wide again to help the Korean make a comeback.
After lagging behind 3-5, Sindhu managed to grab the lead at 6-5 with a few stiff smashes and some superb returns. But Bae still managed to have her nose ahead at 11-7 at the interval.
At 7-13, Sindhu changed her racquet but it didn't change her fate much as even though she tried to narrow the gap to 13-16, the Indian made some errors at crucial juncture to fall behind. Soon Bae was leading 20-14 when another Sindhu's smash ended up at the net. The Indian saved one but again hit wide to end her campaign here.
Bae will now take on former All England champion Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon, who beat Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying, eight seeded, 12-21 21-14 22-20.
Earlier, defending champion Saina Nehwal beat Korea's Sung Ji Hyun to reach the semifinals.
(With PTI inputs)
