- World No. 3 PV Sindhu, World No. 9 Kidambi Srikanth ousted in the quarter-finals of the China Open in Fuzhou.
- Sindhu suffers second straight defeat to China’s He Bingjiao, Srikanth goes down to fourth seed Chou Tien Chen.
India’s singles campaign at the China Open World Tour Super 750 in Fuzhou ended as PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were ousted in the quarter-finals on Friday, 9 November.
Sindhu yet again struggled to go past China's He Bingjiao in the women's singles, while Srikanth fell in straight games to world number 3 Chou Tien Chen in the men's singles event.
Third-seeded Sindhu, a silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games, World Championship and Asian Games this year, lost 17-21, 21-17, 15-21 to the eighth-seeded Chinese.
It was the Indian shuttler's third loss to Bingjiao, who had defeated her at the Indonesia Open and French Open in July and October this year.
Later, Srikanth paid the price for being too erratic as he lost 14-21, 14-21 in 35 minutes to Chen, who has been in good form this season with three titles from five final appearances.
Sindhu’s clash with Bingjiao saw the 2016 Olympic silver medallist outwitted through a combination of perfect stroke-play and deft touches by the Chinese left-hander.
The Indian frittered away a 8-3 advantage early on to lose the opening game but made a roaring comeback in the second before losing the decider after a late charge.
A see-sawing decider had seen Sindhu claw back to within one point of Bingjiao at 15-16 after having earlier trailed 11-6 and 15-8, but the local favourite reeled off five points in a row to cement her place in the semis.
Srikanth, on the other hand, never seemed to pose a challenge to his opponent from the Chinese Taipei – who holds titles in Germany, Singapore and Korea from earlier this year.
Having begun well to grab a 10-8 lead in the opening game, Srikanth saw Chen dominate proceedings after the break. A roaring smash earned him a game point, which was sealed when Srikanth’s return went wide.
In the second game, Srikanth recovered from initial struggles to limit Chen’s lead to 11-7 at the break – but once again, Chen dominated the rallies after the breather, as Srikanth fell in a heap of errors.
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