SportsPosted at: Sep 27 2026 12:41PM


Sindhu bows out after gruelling schedule as India draw blank in badminton singles

Aichi-Nagoya, Sep 27 (UNI) Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu’s Asian Games campaign ended in the quarterfinals on Sunday after the Indian star went down fighting to China’s world No. 4 Chen Yufei in a three-game contest here.
Sindhu, who had already played twice on Saturday, was back on court for the third time in less than 24 hours and eventually lost 21-11, 18-21, 10-21 to the former Olympic champion.
The Indian made a strong start, dominating the opening game with aggressive strokeplay and sharp movement. She was locked with Chen at 16-16 in the second game before the Chinese shuttler edged ahead to level the contest.
Chen then took control of the decider, opening up an 11-7 lead at the interval before pulling away to seal the match.
“I think I should have finished it off in the second set itself but I couldn't. Overall, it was not that easy a game. There were really long rallies,” Sindhu said after the match.
“It’s a bit hurtful, but I need to recover from this. It would have been good if I had gone to the semifinals. Unfortunate, but never mind, these things keep happening. It’s important to get back stronger,” she added.
The defeat was particularly significant as Sindhu had beaten Chen on her way to winning the Japan Open Super 750 title in July. However, Chen showed her resilience after losing the opening game and turned the contest around with greater control in the longer rallies.
Sindhu's exit also brought India's individual badminton campaign to an end. Earlier, 19-year-old Unnati Hooda pushed three-time world champion Akane Yamaguchi before losing 16-21, 21-14, 17-21 in the other women's singles quarterfinal.
India therefore failed to secure a medal in any individual badminton event, with the men's team bronze remaining its only medal in the sport at the Aichi-Nagoya Games.
The outcome also marked a sharp drop from India's performance at the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, where the country won three badminton medals — men's team silver, the men's doubles gold for Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and HS Prannoy's singles bronze.
The demanding schedule had also drawn attention, with players being required to play twice in a day and some matches extending late into the night. Sindhu's third-round match against Japan's Tomoka Miyazaki, for instance, began shortly after midnight on Sunday.
The other Indian quarterfinal exits compounded the disappointment. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 18-21, 9-21 to Malaysia's Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan, while Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila went down 14-21, 21-18, 18-21 to China's world No. 1 pair Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping.
For Sindhu, the early exit ended another Asian Games campaign without an individual medal, despite a promising opening against Chen and the encouraging form she showed earlier this season.
UNI BDN
Tags: #Sindhu bows out after gruelling schedule as India draw blank in badminton singles
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