Kuala Lumpur: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out in the women's singles quarterfinals of the Malaysia Open badminton tournament after losing to her nemesis Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in a hard-fought three-game contest here on Friday.

Sindhu, seeded seventh, squandered a game lead to lose 13-21 21-15 21-13 to the second seed Tai Tzu, a silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics.

By virtue of the win, the Chinese Taipei shuttler extended her domination over the Indian ace, leading 16-5 on head-to-head record. Sindhu has now lost six matches on the trot against Tai Tzu.

Indian challenge ended in the Super 750 event as HS Prannoy also made a quarterfinal exit, losing to seventh seeded Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 18-21 16-21 in 44-minute men's singles match.

Sindhu, playing against drift, made a slow start and trailed 2-5 in the opening game. But she soon got her act together and pocketed 11 points on the trot to go into the break leading 11-7.

The Chinese Taipei shuttler tried to make comeback into the contest by playing long rallies but Sindhu was upto the task to pocket the opening game.

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Sindhu started the second game brightly but her fancied rival dominated the proceedings after the early exchanges to lead 11-3 at the break.

Tai Tzu continued in the same vein after the change of ends and extended her lead to 14-3 before Sindhu relied on her powerful smashes to reduce the deficit to 17-15.

Tai Tzu, however, regrouped quickly and pocketed the next four points to draw level in the contest.

It was a close contest in the decider as both the shuttlers fought tooth and nail till 12 points before Tai Tzu put Sindhu under pressure with a mix of drop shots and smashes to clinch the third game and keep her title defence hopes alive.

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