Tokyo Olympics: PV Sindhu loses to Tai Tzu-Ying in semifinals, to fight for bronze now

India`s PV Sindhu hits a shot to Tai Tzu-Ying in their women`s singles badminton semifinal match. Pic/PTI

Reigning world champion PV Sindhu's hopes of securing India's first-ever Olympic gold in badminton came crashing down as she slumped to a straight-game defeat against World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the women's singles semifinals.

The 26-year-old silver-medallist from the Rio Games, however, remained in the hunt for a bronze medal and will be competing against China's He Bing Jiao in the third-place play-off at Musashino Forest Plaza on August 1. One of the most consistent players, who claimed medals in all big-ticket events in the last five years, Sindhu couldn't counter Tai Tzu's deception with her aggressive game, going down 18-21 12-21.

This is Sindhu's 14th loss to the Taiwanese second seed in 19 meetings, having also lost to her in the last three face-offs. On July 30, Sindhu seeded sixth, had beaten Japanese world no.5, Akane Yamaguchi, in the quarterfinals. Earlier, men's singles player B Sai Praneeth and the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had failed to qualify for the knockout stage.

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