All-England Badminton: Sindhu loses Korea's An Se Young in pre-quarters

Birmingham, March 14: India's P.V Sindhu crashed out of the All-England Badminton Championship, losing to top seed An Se Young of South Korea in a women's singles Round of 16 match on Thursday. Sindhu went down to the Korean 19-21, 11-21 in 42 minutes.

In a closely fought first game, Sindhu opened a 4-1 lead before the Korean caught up with her at 4-4 before taking a 6-4 lead. An Se Young extended her lead to 9-5 and though Sindhu reduced the margin to 10-11, her Korean opponent won points in succession to open a 17-11 lead.

Sindhu continued to fight as she won five points in a row to reduce the margin to 16-17 but the Korean could not be thwarted as she won three points in a row for four game points at 20-14. Sindhu again reduced the margin to 19-20, the Korean player won the next point to win the first game.

In the second game, after the initial exchange of lead, An Se Young took control of the proceedings to open up a 10-4 lead. Though the 26-year-old Sindhu tried to fight back and reduce the margin, the Korean went on to win the game 21-11 and advanced to the last-eight stage.