Indonesia Open: Sindhu loses to Intanon in semifinal

Bali: Indian ace P V Sindhu's impressive campaign at the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament came to an end after she went down in three games to former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in a hard-fought women's singles semifinal here on Saturday.

The Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also lost to top seeds Kevin Sukamuljo and Marcus Gideon of Indonesia 16-21, 18-21 in the men's doubles semifinal.

 

It was the 10th straight defeat for the Indian pair against the world No. 1 pair, a two-time former All England Open champions and reigning Asian Games gold medallists.

It was thus curtains for India at the $850,000 tournament.

Third seed Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, lost 21-15, 9-21, 14-21 to world No. 8 and second-seeded Intanon in 54 minutes for her third semifinal finish on the trot.

The 26-year-old Sindhu had made it to the last four in Indonesia Masters last week and also at the French Open in October.

World champion Sindhu came into the match with a 4-6 head-to-head count, having lost to the Thai player in the their two meetings.

The Indian made a good start, slowly moving to an 8-3 lead. Intanon narrowed it down to 9-10 before Sindhu entered the break with a slender one-point advantage.

Sindhu grabbed three straight points to march ahead as she pocketed the opening game.

Intanon got her bearings back and came back roaring into the match as she build up a lead of 11-7 at the interval in the second game.

The Thai shuttler grabbed nine of the next 10 points from 12-8 to leave Sindhu stranded at the other side.

Intanon continued her impressive run in the decider as she ran to a healthy 11-6 lead with Sindhu committing too many errors.

Sindhu resumed with a cross court drop but a misjudgement at the backline and then an error at the net meant Intanon continued to move ahead.

The Indian had a good run of four points as she reached 13-16 but Intanon once again snapped the run of points and moved to seven match points.

A net error delayed the inevitable, but Intanon sealed the contest with a precise return at the forecourt.

Sindhu last reached the finals at the Swiss Open.