Sindhu goes down in French Open semi-finals

The 26-year-old Indian squandered a one-game advantage to lose 21-18, 16-21, 12-21 against the World No.15 Sayaka. It was her fourth defeat to the 29-year-old Japanese in eight meetings. Sindhu, the reigning world champion, had lost in the quarter-finals at the Denmark Open in Odense last week. 

The World No.7 started the match on a positive note as there was little to separate the two players. After going neck-and-neck from 5-5 to 9-9 in the opening game, Sayaka unleashed a powerful smash to lead 10-9 but the Indian recovered to level the scores. 

The Japanese held a slender one-point advantage at the break. After the interval, Sindhu erased a two-point deficit with a diagonal return before grabbing a one-point lead by winning a 27-shot rally. Sayaka then exploited Sindhu’s weak backhand to regain the lead. 

She added another point with a lucky net chord, but the Indian unleashed three back-to-back smashes to make it 17-16 in her favour. A misjudgement at the forecourt and two net errors by Sayaka gave Sindhu four game points. The Indian wasted two of them before slamming down a winner. 

In the second game, Sindhu continued her momentum, leading 5-2 early on. However, Sayaka again clawed her way back at 6-6 as Sindhu went wide. 

The left-handed Japanese was in the lead at 13-12 after the break, with Sindhu committing a series of errors. At 13-15, Sindhu produced another smash but was later let down by her backhand again as Sayaka jumped to an 18-14 lead. 

Sindhu attacked her rival’s forehand but the latter produced a beautiful block return to grab four game points and sealed it when the Indian went wide. The decider started with the same intensity as the duo was locked at 6-6, but Sayaka started to dominate the proceedings and soon eked out a 11-6 advantage at the break. 

With Sindhu unable to rein in her errors, Sayaka grabbed a massive nine match points. The Indian saved one point before the Japanese sent one down the line. With her loss, India’s campaign ended. On Friday, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty couldn’t cross the quarter-final hurdle, losing 21-18, 18-21, 17-21 to the fourth-seeded Malaysian combination of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.