All England Open 2024: PV Sindhu Knocked Out By Top Seed An Se Young In Second Round

Add as a preferred source on Google

Two-time Olympic champion PV Sindhu made an early exit from the All England Open 2024 following a straight games loss to top seed An Se Young of South Korea at the Arena Birmingham on Thursday (March 14).

The former World Champion, who returned to action last month after an long injury layoff, lost to the defending champion from South Korea by a scoreline of 21-19, 21-11 in the women's singles second round match that lasted 42 minutes on court 1.

Sindhu, who played a key role in the Indian women's team's gold medal in the Badminton Asia Team Championships, showed some fight in the first game, but the South Korean proved too good, racing towards the win in the second game.

This was Sindhu's seventh defeat in as many meetings against the South Korean An. The Indian shuttler has managed to take one game against the South Korean in their previous seven meetings.

Earlier in the first round, the 28-year-old Sindhu had won the first game 21-10 before her German opponent Yvonne Li decided to retire, paving the way for the Indian shuttler to the progress.

While Sindhu crashed out, the top men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty as well as the lone men's singles shuttler Lakshya Sen and the women's doubles team of Tanisha Crasto-Ashwini Ponnappa will look to keep India's challenge alive in Birmingham.

The recent French Open champions Satwik-Chirag will face Indonesian pair in Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana, while Sen will face Denmark's Anders Antonsen, and Tanisha-Ashwini will take on fifth seed Chinese duo of Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu in the pre-quarterfinals.

Earlier on Wednesday (March 13). young Priyanshu Rajawat and doubles pair Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda crashed out following contrasting defeats in the opening round.

On Tuesday (March 12), Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, Aakarshi Kashyap and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand pair sufferd early exits following defeats in their respective opening round matches.