Badminton Asia Championships: PV Sindhu Claims Bronze after Losing to Akane Yamaguchi

PV Sindhu got bronze after losing to world No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 21-13, 19-21, 16-21 in the women’s singles semi-finals at the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex in Manila, the Philippines on Saturday.

The 26-year-old Sindhu had also clinched the bronze in 2014. Dinesh Khanna is the only Indian to win gold at the Asian Championships in 1965.

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The Hyderabad shuttler, who won two Super 300 titles at Syed Modi International and Swiss Open, took the first game easily in 16 minutes.

In the second game, the fourth-seeded Sindhu was handed a point penalty for taking too much time between points, leading to an argument with the referee.

The argument between the two led to a momentum shift as Yamaguchi levelled the proceedings to force a decider. The Japnese shuttler found her rhythm and never let Sindhu regroup.

In the final game, Sindhu trailed from the beginning. In the end, Yamaguchi had five match points, which she duly converted.

The head-to-head between Sindhu and Yamaguchi is now 13-9 in the Indian’s favour.

List of Indian Medallists at Asian Championships –

• Dinesh Khanna – Gold (1965), Bronze (1969)
• Suresh Goel – Bronze (1965)
• Meena Shah – Bronze (1965)
• Owen Roncon and Sarojini Apte – Bronze (1965)
• AI Sheikh and Achala Karnik – Bronze (1965)
• Dipu Ghosh and Raman Ghosh – Bronze (1971)
• Prakash Padukone – Bronze (1976)
• Syed Modi and Prakash Padukone – Silver (1978)
• Pullela Gopichand – Bronze (2000)
• Anup Sridhar – Bronze (2007)
• Saina Nehwal – Bronze (2010, 2016, 2018)
• PV Sindhu – Bronze (2014, 2022)
• Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa – Bronze (2014)
• HS Prannoy – Bronze (2018)

Earlier on Friday, former world champion Sindhu defeated the two-time world championship bronze medallist He Bing Jiao of China 21-9, 13-21, 21-19 to reach the semi-finals to assure a medal in the continental individual championships, which is making a return after a gap of two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

World No. 7 Sindhu came into the match trailing 7-9 in head-to-head encounters but it was her third straight win over her Chinese rival. The last time the duo played each other was at the Tokyo Olympics bronze medal match which Sindhu won in straight games.

The men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, seeded third, lost 21-12, 14-21, 16-21 to fifth-seeded Aaron Chia and Massoh Wooi Yik of Malaysia in their quarter-final clash, which lasted for 53 minutes.

Top Indian badminton players Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen were knocked out in the earlier rounds.

With Sindhu’s defeat, India’s challenge at the individual continental championship has ended.

(With inputs from Agencies)