India’s two-time Olympic medallist and former World Champion PV Sindhu lost in 29 minutes to Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 8-21, 8-21 in the final of the Madrid Spain Masters 2023 at Centro Deportivo Municipal Gallur on Sunday.
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It was Sindhu’s first final since winning the gold and the Commonwealth Games last year.
Brilliant week for @Pvsindhu1 in Madrid ????????In sports, you either win or learn. Onwards and upwards champ, proud of you ????
????: @badmintonphoto@himantabiswa | @sanjay091968 | @lakhaniarun1 #SpainMasters2023#IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/l0jWsIGA0m
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Despite coming into the finals with a dominating 7-0 lead over the 23-year-old Indonesian, Sindhu looked a pale shadow of her old self as an opportunity to seal her first crown in eight months slipped out of her hands.
It was, however, a good campaign for the Indian, who showed flashes of her brilliance during a week where she didn’t drop a game en route to the final.
Sindhu had defeated Yeo Jia Min of Singapore in the semifinal with the 27-year-old from Hyderabad prevailing 24-22,22-20 in the closely-fought 48-minute encounter.
Sindhu defeated Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark 21-14, 21-17 in the quarter-final, Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-14, 21-16 in the pre-quarters and Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland 21-10, 21-14 in the first round.
Sindhu, who had failed to progress beyond the second round in the BWF World Tour events she competed in so far, reached her first final of the 2023 season as she gathered momentum as she had missed the entire second half of the 2022 season after suffering an injury during in Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August.
Sindhu is the only Indian shuttler remaining in the fray in the Madrid Spain Masters 2023 as Kidambi Srikanth was ousted in the men’s singles quarterfinals.
The appearance in the final came as a huge morale boost for Sindhu, who has been struggling for form this season since returning to action following a long injury lay off.
Sindhu has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since November 2016.
She made a first-round exit from the prestigious All England Championship and failed to defend her Swiss Open Super 300 badminton title earlier this month.
She had made first-round exits at the Indian Open and Malaysia Open in January.
Sindhu currently trains under Vidhi Chaudhary following the exit of Korea’s Park Tae Sang.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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