The Indian shuttler lost easily in straight games because she was unable to match the competitiveness of her opponent that day.
PV Sindhu, who has won two Olympic medals, lost to Zhang Yi Man of China in straight games on Wednesday in the opening round of the Japan Open. Sindhu suffered her eighth first-round exit in the 13 BWF World Tour events she has competed in this year after losing 12-21, 13-21 in the match that lasted 32 minutes.
following undergoing injury rehabilitation, the former world champion was a shell of her former self and slipped to world No. 17 following a string of first-round losses. Even when playing opponents with lesser rankings, she has a tendency to make mistakes and has trouble finishing points.
Sindhu has began working with prominent new coach Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, the 2003 All-England winner, with the intention of improving her situation.
Zhang, ranked 18th in the world, defeated Sindhu in the Malaysian Open quarterfinals in May of this year, but the Chinese avenged that setback and improved their overall win-loss record against the Indian to 3-2.
In contrast to Sindhu, who has been having difficulty, the strong doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had no such problems as they defeated the Indonesian team of Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin 21-16 11-21 21-13 to advance to the second round.Satwik and Chirag, the third-seeded team in the competition, will play Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede of Denmark in the second round after winning the Korean Open on Sunday.
Lakshya Sen also had a successful opening round of the BWF Super 750 competition after defeating fellow countryman Priyanshu Rajawat 21-15, 12-21, 24-22. In the second round, he takes on Japanese opponent Kanta Tsuneyama.However, in a men’s singles match that could have gone either way, Mithun Manjunath was defeated by Weng Hong Yang of China in the first round 21-13 22-24 18-21. The game lasted for one hour and twenty-five minutes.
