French Open Badminton 2019: Sindhu goes down fighting to Tai Tzu Ying in the quarterfinal

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Bengaluru, October 26: World champion PV Sindhu crashed out of the French Open Super Series 750 Badminton tournament after going down fighting to Chinese Taipei's world No.1 Tai Tzu Ying 16-21, 26-24, 17-21 in the women's singles quarterfinals in Paris.

The hard-fought win in the 75-minute encounter helped Chinese Taipei ace, who was given the top billing in the tournament, improve her head-to-head record to 11-5 over the Indian.

Since clinching her maiden World Championships title in August, Sindhu has struggled to find form and has failed to cross the second round in three tournaments.

She lost in the second and first rounds at the China Open and Korea Open respectively last month, while she lost in the second round of the Denmark Open last week.

Seeded fifth at the French Open, Sindhu, a 2017 semifinalist, looked in good form in the tournament where she dropped a game for the first time.

However, the 24-year-old clawed her way back after losing the first game, but Tai Tzu held her nerve in the decider to seal the contest and book a place in the last four.

Earlier, Saina Nehwal also went down fighting in the last-eight stage.

The Commonwealth Games medallist lost to Korea's An Se Young 20-22, 21-23 in a 49-minute contest.

However, it is not all over for India as the leading doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and S Ranki Reddy are in the semifinals, courtesy of a 21-13, 22-20 win against Denmark's Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen.