IMAGE: PV Sindhu was rusty and subdued throughout the match while her world number 17 opponent was more agile and on the offensive. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images
There was no end to P V Sindhu’s poor run as the star Indian shuttler made a first round exit from the All England Championships after losing to Zhang Yi Man of China in straight games in Birmingham on Wednesday.
World No 9 Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist, lost 17-21, 11-21 in the 39-minute women’s singles contest.
This is the third time this year that Sindhu has been knocked out in the first round of the tournaments she’s played.
She had lost to Spain’s Carolina Marin in the Malaysia Open in January before exiting the Indian Open at the same stage in the same month.
She had recently parted ways with her coach, Korean Park Tae-sang, under whose guidance she won a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
In the men’s singles, top Indian Kidambi Srikkanth beat Frenchman Toma Junior Popov 19-21, 21-14, 21-5 in the first round match that lasted one hour three minutes.
Srikkanth is now up against seventh seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals.
Sindhu was rusty and subdued throughout the match while her world number 17 opponent was more agile and on the offensive.
There was not much to differentiate initially between the two who had 1-1 head-to-head record before Wednesday’s match.
Sindhu led 6-5 and then made it 16-13. But the Chinese shuttler won seven straight points to lead 20-16 before taking the first game in 21 minutes.
In the second game, the two players were tied 5-5 but Sindhu committed a few unforced errors and was soon down 5-10.
Sindhu recovered a bit to trail 7-11 but was soon down 9-16 before losing the second game and the match.
Earlier during the day, India’s women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela stunned seventh seeded Thailand duo of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 21-18, 21-14 in a 46-minute first round match.
The Indian duo will meet the Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the pre-quarter-finals.
In the men’s doubles, sixth seeded India pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat compatriots Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala 21-13, 21-13 in all-Indian first round match.
Satwik and Chirag will now face Chinese pair of Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in the pre-quarterfinals.
