PV Sindhu at Badminton BWF World Championships Day 5 LIVE Updates: PV Sindhu’s quest for a sixth World Championships medal fell agonisingly short as she went down in three hard-fought games against Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani in Paris on Friday. Sindhu dropped the opening game but fought back to take control of the match in the second, but eventually the Indonesian’s much-improved gameplay this season shone through as she won 21-14, 13-21, 21-16 in 64 minutes.
Still to come, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty are one win away from ensuring a medal for themselves as they prepare for a stern test in the quarterfinals: it’s their old foes Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia, just over a year after losing against them at the Paris Olympics, also in the quarterfinals.
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The day, however, began with Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto going down against world No 4 Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei in straight games 15-21, 13-21 in just 37 minutes. That marked the end of India’s run in mixed doubles, where the wait for a first-ever medal at the World Championships continues.
The headline result of the round of 16 was Sindhu’s massive win – and an impressive performance to boot – against world No 2 Wang Zhi Yi of China. The 2019 champion Sindhu, ranked No 15 in the world now, took 48 minutes to prevail 21-19 21-15 in the pre-quarterfinals. Read more about Sindhu’s masterful performance here. Later in the night, 2022 bronze medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came from behind to beat Liang Wei Kang and Wang Chang 19-21, 21-15, 21-17, and in the process, arrested a run of four straight defeats against the Chinese. Read more about SatChi’s win here.
