Indian ace shuttler PV Sindhu's miserable time in 2023 continued as she suffered a premature exit at the BWF World Championships losing to her old nemesis Nozomi Okuhara 14-21 14-21. This is the first time in her career that Sindhu hasn't reached the quarterfinals of the World Championships. However, there was some good news for India as well from Copenhagen as HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen qualified for the third round in the men's singles event with wins in their respective matches.
World No 9 Prannoy was at the top of his game against his Indonesian opponent Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo winning his men's singles clash 21-9 21-14 and will now take on the 2021 champion, Loh Kean Yew of Singapore. On the other hand, the bronze medallist of the 2021 World Championships, Sen avenged his Asia Team Championship loss against the Korean Jeon Hyeok Jin as he beat him in straight sets 21-11 21-12.
On the other hand, Sindhu suffered her 9th defeat in 19 meetings against Okuhara. This was the duo's first meeting in three years as the Japanese shuttler, who beat Sindhu in the memorable 110-minute-long World Championships final in 2017, has been struggling with persistent injuries.
Sindhu started well as the first game was going at 6-6 with both of them going head-to-head before Okuhara grabbed three points and didn't let the lead go. After losing the first game, Sindhu started the second game on a good note as well but the Japanese proved to be too powerful.
This was Sindhu's 10th first/second round exit in tournaments in 2023 as her poor run continued. Since returning from injury after the Commonwealth Games 2022 gold, Sinhdu has played final in just one event, the Madrid Masters, reached the semis in the Malaysia Masters and Canada Open and was knocked out in the quarters in US Open and Australian Open.
