Indian shuttlers P.V. Sindhu and K. Srikanth squandered an opening game advantage before suffering close defeats in their first Group-B matches at the $1.5 million HSBC BWF World Tour Finals here on Wednesday.
World champion Sindhu lost to World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan 21-19, 12-21, 17-21, while World No. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark got the better of Srikanth 15-21, 21-16, 21-18 in 77 minutes.
Strings broken
“It was a good match, there were no easy points. In the third game I came back and it was just a one point difference at one stage. I broke my racquet strings twice (during rallies) and that made a difference.
“It’s a tough group. I have to give 100%,” said Sindhu after the 59-minute encounter. It was the Indian’s 16th defeat to Tzu Ying in 21 meetings. Asked for his reactions, the former World No. 1 Srikanth said “I can’t say I’m happy with the way I played today, because I was playing much better in training before I came here.
“I had my chances today, I could have won from 17-16 in the third. Main motto for me is to play as many matches as possible, because I haven’t been winning matches over the last two years. So, I really want to play matches with the top-eight players.”
Sindhu, who had won this title in 2018, will next play home favourite Ratchanok Intanon, who had handed her a defeat last week, while Srikanth, ranked 14th, faces fourth seed Wang Tzu Wei of Taiwan on Thursday.
The results: Men: Anders Antonsen (Den) bt K. Srikanth 21-15 16-21 18-21. Women: Tai Tzu Ying (Tpe) bt P.V. Sindhu 15-21, 21-16, 21-18.
