Badminton Asia C'ships: Sindhu bows out after losing to An Se Young

DUBAI: Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu crashed out of the Badminton Asia Championships 2023 after losing to second seed An Se Young in women's singles quarter-final match in Dubai on Friday.

Playing at the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Indoor Hall, World No. 11 Sindhu suffered defeat against the South Korean shuttler and went down 21-18, 5-21, 9-21.

The two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu played well in the first game and won it despite trailing 13-16 at one point. In their previous five encounters, PV Sindhu has never defeated An Se Young in a game.

An Se Young dominated the second game. In the third, Sindhu engaged in longer rallies but An Se Young proved tough to crack and ran away with the game convincingly.

Sindhu settled for bronze at the most recent Asian championships held in Manila last year after falling to Akane Yamaguchi in the semifinals.

In 2014, PV Sindhu also took home a bronze. Earlier in the day, India's mixed doubles team of Rohan Kapoor-N Sikki Reddy lost to the world No. 19 duo of Dejan Ferdinansyah-Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja from Indonesia 18-21, 21-19, 15-21 in the quarter-finals.

Later in the day, in the men's singles event, India's Thomas Cup hero and world No. 9 HS Prannoy will play world No. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan.