Sindhu loses, settles for bronze

P.V. Sindhu settled for the bronze medal as she lost her women's singles semi-final to Chinese top seed Shixian Wang at the Badminton Asia Championships here Saturday.

After securing the bronze by qualifying for the last four Friday, the 18-year-old Indian went down to her World No.2 arch rival from China in a marathon match which lasted an hour and 18 minutes.

The World No.10 started the encounter on a positive note by clinching the first game 21-15. The second game went right till the end and Sindhu had victory in her sights but Shixian wasn't going to give it away that easily and went on to level the match by winning the game 22-20.

Once Sindhu lost the second game, the third one was completely dominated by the 2010 Asian Games gold medallist. Shixian raced away to take a big lead and then finished the game 21-12.

With this victory, reigning All-England champion Shixian bettered her career record to 2-3 against the Hyderabadi.

Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, who also secured the bronze Friday, play their women's doubles semi-final against Luo Ying and Luo Yu later in the day.