An Olympics gold dream eluded PV Sindhu, star Indian shuttler, once again as she lost the women’s singles semi-final 18-21,12-21 to second seed Tai Tzu-Ying of Chinese Taipei in barely 40 minutes.
Sindhu, a silver medallist in Rio 2016, will now face He Bingjiao in the bronze medal play-off match on Sunday.
Tai Tzu-Ying, who once again turned out to be Sindhu’s nemesis, will take on China’s Chen Yufei in the gold medal match.
Sindhu, the current world champion, had started off well with her aggressive display in the first game, opening up a 6-3 lead. However, Tai Tzu fought back before Sindhu again opened up a three-point lead at 11-8. However, Tai Tzu then won three quick points to draw level and from there the two went neck and neck before the Taiwanese player closed the first game in her favour 21-18.
While the first game took 21 minutes, the second game took just 19 minutes as Tai Tzu continued using the sharp, acute angles to leave the tall Indian shuttler often wrong-footed. Tai Tzu took a four-point lead at 11-7 and from there never looked back sealing the game at 21-12.
The encounter between the sixth seed Sindhu and the second seed Tai Tzu was as one-sided as it could get and took half as much time as the first semi-final between He and Chen Yu Fei.
Chen overpowered her Chinese compatriot in three games 21-16, 13-21 and 21-12 in 79 minutes.
