India Open: PV Sindhu Crashes Out in First Round – Here’s what happened – News24 India Open: PV Sindhu Crashes Out in First Round

Having shown a promising form in reaching the semi-finals at last weekend’s $1.45 million Malaysia Open, Indian shuttler PV Sindhu geared up to take on the $950,000 India Open with optimism. At Monday’s pre-event press conference, ex-world champ Sindhu expressed readiness to take on the global crowd at home with a healthy physique.

However, things completely changed for her just two days ago at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. Yesterday’s opening round saw the world No. 12 suffer a shock exit at the Super 750 tournament. The erstwhile champion at this tournament surprisingly gave way to Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen with a score of 22-20, 12-21, 15-21. The match lasted for 68 minutes. This is her third consecutive loss to her opponent who is world No. 23 and her opponent now leads their rivalry.

While Sindhu made a great start, winning the opening game, Nguyen rose to the occasion in the second and forced a decider. In the deciding third game that was going neck and neck at 12-12, Vietnamese shuttler changed her strategy by playing shots at the body of Sindhu and upped the ante on aggressive play at the net, which eventually clicked.

They both tried to avoid too much rallying and crammed in fast, attacking shots. In this rapid race, Nguyen adapted the best and controlled the last part of the match.

Sindhu failed to mix up the pace by lifting the shuttle when necessary, which had served her so well in Kuala Lumpur the previous week, and it cost her the match.