BWF World Championships 2021: Champion PV Sindhu loses to Tai Tzu Ying in quarterfinals

Bengaluru, December 17: PV Sindhu's Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships title defence ended following a heart-breaking 17-21, 13-21 loss to her nemesis world No.1 Tai Tzu Ying at Heulva, Spain, on Friday (December 17).

Of late, the Thai badminton player is proving to be a bogey player for Sindhu after after beating the ace Indian shuttler for the fifth straight time (including at Tokyo Olympics semifinals) and improved her head-to-head record to 15-5.

India's double Olympic champion Sindhu was hoping to set her record straight against Tai Tzu at the Palacio de los Deportes Carolina Marin courts, but her challenge ended in 42 minutes.

TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2021
WS - Quarter final
21 21 Tzu Ying TAI🏅
17 13 🇮🇳V. Sindhu PUSARLA

🕗 in 42 minutes
https://t.co/Fxqa1IheXZ

— BWFScore (@BWFScore) December 17, 2021

The Hyderabadi shuttler had been in impressive form this season as she claimed her second silver medal at the season-ending World Tour Finals in Indonesia recently after three successive semifinals finishes at French Open, Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open.

The 26-year-old was hoping to end the season with a successful defence of her maiden BWF World Championship title, which she had claimed two years ago in Basel, Switzerland, but Tai Tzu proved a tough nut to crack her for her yet again.

World Championship: India's PV Sindhu eyes title defence, faces tough opponents like Ying

The BWF World Championships, which is being held after a one-year gap (was not held last year due to COVID-19 pandemic) had lost some of its sheen this time with the withdrawals of the entire Indonesian contingent and other elite players such as two-time winner Kento Momota.

Indonesia pulled out due to growing concerns over the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Momota had withdrawn after failing to recover sufficiently from his injury.

Badminton World Championships: Indonesia withdraws over Omicron scare

Sindhu, who had been given a first-round bye, had made mincemeat of her Slovakian opponent Martina Repiska 21-7, 21-9 in the round-of-32 contest in which lasted just 24 minutes.

Seeded sixth in the tournament, it was a great start for Sindhu's title defence and one expected her to go all the way.

Badminton World Championships: Sindhu begins title defence in style

The BWF world No.7 then followed it up with a facile 21-14, 21-18 win over Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong in the pre-quarterfinal tie to stay firmly on course for title.

Sindhu had lost to Chochuwong in her two previous meetings -- in a group match of the BWF World Tour Finals earlier this month and the All England Championships in March -- but this time was it was her turn to exact revenge as it also helped improve her head-to-head record against the Thai opponent to 5-3.

BWF World Championships 2021: PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth enter quarterfinals

In the quarterfinals on Friday, Sindhu expected to carry the winning momentum forward, but Tai Tzu had other ideas.

The last time these two shuttlers met was at the Tokyo Games semifinals when the Taiwanese defeated Sindhu 21-18, 21-12.

Tai Tzu went on to clinch the silver while Sindhu brought home the bronze, her second in Olympics after the silver at Rio Olympics.

The women's singles field had been left depleted somewhat this this time after the withdrawal of Spain's three-time champion Carolina Marin and Japan's 2017 winner Nozomi Okuhara.

Carolina Marin pulls out of BWF World Championships

It was also the first time in her career that London Olympics bronze medallist and 2015 silver medallist Saina Nehwal missed the BWF World Championships due to multiple injuries.