Malaysia Masters: PV Sindhu slips to 7th straight defeat to Tai Tzu Ying, crashes out in quarters

PV Sindhu’s poor run against Tai Tzu Ying continued as the Indian shuttler lost to the World No. 2 for the 7th successive time on the tour. Sindhu was knocked out from the quarter-final of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 after a three-game battle against the Taiwanese shuttler on Friday, July 8.

PV Sindhu was 9-10 in the deciding game as she was giving it her all to make sure Tai did not run away with the game, as she did in the first game. However, the Taiwanese star did it to Sindhu once again, winning the next 10 of 12 points played to win the quarter-final 21-13, 12-21, 21-12 in 55 minutes.

Sindhu was making a fine effort to retrieve those trademark slices and drops from Tai but the Indian shuttler, a two-time Olympic medalist, was not able to stop the charge from Tai.

Notably, Sindhu had lost to Tai in the quarter-final of the Malsyais Open Super 1000 tournament earlier this month in Kuala Lumpur. She gave away a one-game advantage to go down in three games.

Sindhu, who has lost to Tai 17 times in 22 meetings on the tour, has not beaten the Tokyo Olympics silver medalist since their meeting in the quarter-final of the World Championships in August 2019.

Friday’s defeat was also the third time Sindhu has been knocked out in the quarter-final stage in her last 4 tournaments on the tour.

Notably, India’s chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand had acknowledged Sindhu’s run of losses against Tai after the Malaysia Open and said he would be speaking to her coach Park Tae Sang.

“We will work on this definitely, she’s a very good player, and Tai Tzu is equally good. We will plan accordingly so that she’s able to reverse the losses in the near future,” Pullela Gopichand said, as quoted by PTI.

“We will be talking to coach Park and find out what the problems are. she is a strong player over the years, she’s experienced. I’m sure she will come back strongly in a few weeks.”

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