New Delhi: India faced mixed fortunes at the Singapore Open Super 750 on Friday as PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen lost in the quarterfinals, while the men’s doubles pair of Satok Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty staged a brilliant comeback to reach the semifinals.Two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu once again found reigning Olympic champion and world No. 1 NC Young too tough to overcome, going down 17-21, 14-21 in 48 minutes in the women’s singles quarter-finals.The defeat extended Sindhu’s winning streak against the Korean star to nine matches, underscoring N’s dominance in one of badminton’s most one-sided modern rivalries.Sindhu shows fight but NC Young remains in control.Sindhu started aggressively and tried to take the attack to N with powerful smashes at the net and quick interceptions. However, the coverage and consistency of Korea’s highest court proved decisive once again.Trailing 7-11 in the opening game, Sindhu fought back impressively to narrow the gap to 13-14 with attacking strokes. She even closed at 17-19 after winning the longest rally of the match, but some ill-timed errors allowed N to close out the game.The second game started badly for Sindhu as N raced to a 6-0 lead. Although the Indian briefly recovered and was within touching distance at 12-14 after a strong 30-shot rally, her momentum faded as unforced errors ensued.Ann’s relentless accuracy and uncanny retrieval skills eventually saw off Sindhu before the Korean sealed a comfortable victory to book a place in the semi-finals.The challenge against N was always going to be big for Sindhu, considering the world No. 1 has lost just one match this year and dominates the women’s circuit.In the men’s singles, Lakshya Sen also lost 19-21, 21-15, 15-21 to Japan’s Koki Watanabe in a match that lasted 78 minutes.Satuk-Chirag kept India’s hopes aliveIndia’s biggest positive of the day came through Satwak and Chirag, who showed great resilience to beat Malaysia’s Khai Xing Kang and Aaron Tai 19-21, 21-17, 21-13 in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.The fourth-seeded Indian duo recovered strongly after losing the opening game and gradually took control with their aggressive net play and powerful smashes. The contest lasted for one hour and five minutes.The Asian Games champion will now take on top seeds and reigning world champions Kim Won-ho and Korea’s Seo Seung-jae in the semi-finals.India also won the mixed doubles as Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Christo reached the semi-finals after Malaysia’s third-seeded pair Chen Tang Ji and Toh EV retired during the opening game.The Indian pair will next face Japan’s Yuchi Shimugami and Sayaka Hobara for a place in the final.
