India Open: Sindhu knocked out in opening round

It was a result that no one saw coming. PV Sindhu was ousted by Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Linh in the first round. The India Open was her second major tournament after returning from a toe injury. With the home crowd backing the two-time Olympics medal winner, Nguyen was expected to be a small hurdle. Instead, the 68-minute match-up showed how Sindhu has a lot to work on, if she has to sustain another year on the tour.
After a laborious first game, the errors started to pile up and she lost 22-20 12-21 15-21. She was very critical of her game on Wednesday, Jan 14.
“It was not my day; that much I can tell you. There were good rallies and she is not an easy player either despite the ranking. When you come to a top level tournament everybody does play well and you can’t expect easy points or wins,” she said.
She was complimentary of her opponent who made it very hard for her to make a comeback, despite starting the second game with a lead.
“She has good strokes and she has nothing to lose, but overall in terms of a tricky player she has good skills. There were long rallies, 10, 15, 20 shots or 30 shots so it’s just that you know you have to keep the tempo going and keep the shuttle in the court. Sometimes you know small mistakes might be the most important point,” she said.
While Sindhu exited, young Tanvi Sharma played out of her skin to stun the fans as she took China‘s world No. 2 Wang Zhi Yi to the third game before losing 20-22 21-18 13-21.