Sindhu, Kidambi lose their matches in BWF World Tour Finals

The Indian players gave a good account of themselves against stronger opponents.

The prestigious HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2020 is underway in Thailand. The tournament saw P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth represent India against the best of the best on Wednesday. In their respective clashes, PV Sindhu lost to World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, while Kidambi Srikanth suffered a defeat against the World No. 4 Anders Antonsen.

Tai Tzu Ying started the contest on a wrong foot but eventually beat PV Sindhu 19-21, 21-12, 21-17 in the opening match of Group 'B' in women single's category.

Before entering this match, World No. 7 Sindhu had been going through a rough patch of form in the last few tournaments. She came up against the top-ranked shuttler and fought hard but to no avail. 

Sindhu found herself chasing at the interval in the first, but clawed her way to secure the game against all odds. However, at this point, Tai Tzu Ying showed her class and justified her number one ranking. Her agility and accuracy with the shots were too hot to handle for the Indian.

The Chinese Taipei shuttler led on both intervals in the second and third and won both games by 21-12 and 21-17 respectively to secure the tie, which lasted around 59 minutes. Sindhu lost at the hands of the best female shuttler in the world rankings and should take positives from her performance. 

In Group 'B' of men’s singles action, World No. 14 Kidambi Srikanth lost 21-15, 16-21, 18-21 to Anders Antonsen. The Indian shuttler fought toe-to-toe with Denmark’s Antonsen despite struggling with a calf problem. The former World No. 1 secured the first game impressively.

His Danish opponent made a strong comeback in the second and pounced on the unforced errors by Kidambi. The game stretched out as it had long rallies and brilliant net play from both players. 

The third decider took everything from the players, who looked fatigued due to the long duration of the match. However, it was Antonsen who prevailed and secured the third by 21-18 and emerged as a winner.