HYDERABAD: PV Sindhu crashed out of the All England Championships with a 17-21, 9-21 loss against Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the semifinals on Saturday. A day after her brilliant show against Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, Sindhu struggled against Pornpawee in the semifinals.
Perhaps the Indian did not recover after the tiring one hour 16 minute encounter against Yamaguchi late on Friday.
Sindhu started well, but at 6-9 in the first game, she misjudged a couple of line calls and allowed Pornpawee to move into a 11-6 lead.
However, the Indian made a gallant comeback from 7-14 and wiped off the deficit to 15-16. It was here Pornpawee displayed her brilliance by confining the Indian to the back of the court.
She executed breathtaking cross-court half smashes and moved to 20-16 with a three-point burst at the crucial stage.
Thereafter, though Sindhu saved one game point Pornpawee came up with a winner to clinch the game.
Applying the same pressure on the Indian, not giving much height to the bird, Pornpawee took an early lead of 10-3 in the second.
She stuck to the same strategy of making the Indian move a lot on the court and killing the rally with a cross-court half smash. After conceding such a huge lead, Sindhu was effectively put out of the game as Pornpawee scored four straight points from 12-6 to 16-6.
The world No.11 Thai improved a lot in the last few months and the manner she played against Sindhu makes her a strong favourite for Sunday’s final.