BWF World Tour Finals: Tai Tzu-Ying defeats PV Sindhu In First Match

Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying defeats PV Sindhu at BWF World Tour finals: On Wednesday, PV Sindhu lost in her first outing at the prestigious BWF World Tour Finals, taking place in Bangkok. In a close fight, Sindhu lost to World No.1 Tai Tzu-ying from Taiwan who won 19-21, 21-12, 21-17 in the Group B game. Sindhu now has two more matches to look forward to and has to win both to make it to the semifinals.

Earlier, Sindhu lost in the YONEX Thailand Open Super 1000 and the Toyota Thailand Open competitions after returning to competitive action after a long gap. Sindhu has now faced three consecutive defeats at hands of Tzu Ying.

Before today’s face off, Sindhu and Tai Tzu-ying had competed against each other in French Open back in October 2019 and the Malaysia Masters in January last year and lost to her Taiwanese counterpart both times.

Sindhu and, in the men's singles, Kidambi Srikanth, are the only Indians to have made qualified for the badminton competition this year.

High on Olympics dream

Sindhu, the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics, said that there's still some time left for the Tokyo Olympics preparation but it could have been different if she had won the latest tours.

The badminton star, who scripted history by becoming the first Indian to win a World Championships gold medal in 2019, made her debut in 2009. In 2018, she made it to the Forbes List Of 30 Under 30 Asia list. The Hyderabad-based badminton player is among India’s favourites for another Olympic medal at the Tokyo 2021 Games. The 24-year-old has recently laid the foundation of her own badminton academy in Chennai.

In November last year, Sindhu’s social media post saying ‘I retire’ had got her fans worried. She had later put an end to all the speculations and said she was totally fit to play on the court again. She had also claimed to be in her best form on the badminton court. She had further noted that she was looking forward to competing in the upcoming tournaments such as the Asia Cup and of course the Tokyo Olympics.

Sindhu will next face Ratchanok Intanon, who also defeated her last week in a lop-sided quarterfinal.