Star Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth fought their hearts out before suffering close defeats in their respective group B openers at the $1.5 million HSBC BWF World Tour Finals here on Wednesday.
A week after a demoralising defeat at the Toyota Thailand Open quarterfinals, world champion Sindhu produced a much-improved performance but still lost to world number one Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan 21-19, 12-21, 17-21.
“It was a good match, there were no easy points. In the third game I came back and it was just one point difference at one stage. I broke my racket strings twice (during rallies) and that made a difference,” Sindhu said.
“It’s a tough group. I have to give 100 per cent.”
It was Sindhu’s 16th defeat to Tzu Ying in 21 meetings.
Former world number one Srikanth too squandered an opening game advantage, losing 21-15, 16-21, 18-21 to world number three Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a gruelling 77-minute contest.
“I can’t say I’m happy with the way I played today, because I was playing much better in training before I came here,” Srikanth said.
“I had my chances today, I could have won from 17-16 in the third. Main motto for me is to play as many matches as possible, because I haven’t been winning matches over the last two years. So, I really want to play matches with the top-eight players.”
Olympic Silver medallist Sindhu, who had won the prestigious title in 2018, will next play home favourite Ratchanok Intanon.