SYDNEY, June 6: Olympic and world championship silver medallist PV Sindhu made a second round exit from the Australia Open, suffering a straight-game loss in what turned out to be a dismal day for Indian shuttlers here.
Sindhu was the last to fall, following the ouster of sixth seeded compatriots Sameer Verma, B Sai Praneeth and the men�s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. The World No. 5 Sindhu, who is still looking for the first title of the season, could not get across Nitchaon Jindapol, ranked 29th, and lost 19-21, 18-21 in a 49-minute match. This was her second loss to the Thailand player in seven meetings.
Earlier, World No. 12 Sameer went down 16-21, 21-7, 13-21 to former top 10 player Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei, while Praneeth put up a brave fight in the opening game before surrendering 23-25, 9-21 to second seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in a 42-minute clash. Satwiksairaj and Chirag tried hard against second seeds Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen, before losing 19-21, 18-21 in a close contest.
Sindhu was pegged back 1-5 in the first game but she recovered to grab a slender 11-9 advantage at the break. Jindapol, however, came back to erase the deficit and move to a 16-12 lead.
Sindhu battled hard till 19-19 before Jindapol closed the opening game in her favour.
The Indian revived hopes of a reversal when she led 14-11 at one stage, but Jindapol again came back strongly, edging out an 18-14 advantage.
Sindhu narrowed the lead to 18-19 but Jindapol soon shut the door on her rival.
The Hyderabadi shuttler�s best performance this season has been a semifinal place at the India Open Super 500 tournament. � PTI
