Swiss Open 2023: PV Sindhu failed to defend her title again after losing to Putri Kusuma Wardani

Indian star shuttler PV Sindhu crashed out of the women's singles as she was shocked by unseeded Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a thrilling three-game match at the Swiss Open 2023 in Basel on Thursday.

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Sindhu went down to defending champion Wardani 21-15, 12-21, 21-18 in a hard-fought round of 16 match. Two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu began her women's singles campaign with a 21-9, 21-16 win over Switzerland's Jenjira Stadelmann in a 32-minute match on Wednesday. But she could not maintain her rhythm.

The Commonwealth Games champion was dominated by the 20-year-old Wardani in the first game of the match. The second game started in a similar fashion with Sindhu trailing 6-7 at one point. But the Indian ace rallied back to take an 11-10 advantage into the break. After the break, Sindhu completely dominated and outscored her opponent and took the game 21-12 to push the match into the final game. Wardani was in full control of the third game and raced to an 11-5 lead at the break. Sindhu once again showed her resilience and came back into the contest, making 12-16 at one point. However, Wardani was too strong on the day and ended up winning the game and the match.

Meanwhile, world number nine and fifth seed HS Prannoy also lost 21-8 21-8 to unseeded Christo Popov of France. On Wednesday, Prannoy defeated All England Open finalist Shi Yu Qi of China to reach the men's singles pre-quarterfinals. Kidambi Srikanth and Mithun Manjunath also exited in the round of 16 in men's singles. With Lakshya Sen's early exit in the Swiss Open 2023, all eyes were on world No. 20 Kidambi Srikanth. However, Srikanth lost 22-20, 21-17 to Hong Kong's Cheuk Yiu Lee in a closely fought match. Earlier, Mithun Manjunath lost 21-19, 21-19 to Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei.

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However, in the men's doubles, India's Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and second seed Chirag Shetty registered a 21-12, 17-21, 28-26 win against Chinese Taipei pair of Fang-Chih Lee and Fang-Jen Lee to advance to the quarterfinals. The Indian pair is the last Indian challenger in this year's Swiss Open 2023 badminton tournament. The world No. 6 Indian duo will next face the Danish pair of Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede later on Friday.