India's ace badminton player in the women's singles circuit PV Sindhu crashed out of the ongoing Australia Open after losing in straight games (12-21 17-21 ) at the hands of world No. 12 Beiwen Zhang of the United States in the quarterfinals on Friday, August 4.
Australia Open, a USD 420,000 super 500 tournament could have witnessed Sindhu's fourth semifinal entry of the season but it wasn't meant to be as Zhang turned out to be too good for the Rio Olympics silver medallist's liking.
The 28-year-old has slipped all the way down to the 17th spot in the world rankings after a string of underwhelming performances. She conceded the match in just 39 minutes as Zhang looked spot-on with her shots. Coming into the clash, Sindhu was deemed a firm favourite to emerge victorious owing to her 6-4 head-to-head record over her American opponent.
With the World Championships to be held in Denmark's Copenhagen starting August 21, Sindhu's latest loss isn't a great sign for Indian badminton fans as they will have their hopes pinned on her to bring laurels to the nation. Having won gold at the World Badminton Championship in 2019, Sindhu would look to seek inspiration from the same and script a spirited comeback at the forthcoming event.
She had beaten Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in the final of the world event in 2019 at Basel in Switzerland. Since, recovering from a stress fracture to her left ankle which she suffered during the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, Sindhu has been going through a lean patch. A promising beginning to Australia Open after victories over compatriots Ashmita Chaliha and Aakarshi Kashyap there were expectations that she might go all the way but to her disappointment, her hopes came crashing down.
Among the Indians who are still in contention, HS Prannoy will take on Indonesia's Anthony Ginting who is the top seed and Kidambi Srikanth will square off against compatriot Priyanshu Rajawat later in the day.
