PV Sindhu - HS Prannoy - sportstiger

Picture Credit: Twitter

The fourth day of 2022 Malaysia Open saw only two Indians left in the tournament get knocked out. While we saw PV Sindhu losing to Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Tai Tzu Ying in the quarterfinal clash, HS Prannoy also lost his quarterfinal match against world ranked 8 Jonatan Christie on Friday.

The Indian team did not have a great start to the day as the seventh-seeded lost to Chinese Taipei’s Ying 13-21, 21-15, 21-13 in the Super 750 quarterfinal match. The two-time Olympic medalist started slow and trailed 2-5, but came back stronger pocketing 11 points on the trot and later went on to win the first set 21-13. She started the second set brightly but was soon dominated by her opponent to trail 3-11 at break. Tai Tzu continued her form and ended winning the second set.

The decider was yet another close contest between both shuttlers before Tzu put a little added pressure on Sindhu to clinch the third set with smashes and keep her title hopes alive in the tournament.

With this win, the Chinese Taipei shuttler extended her dominance over Indian ace, leading the head to head record to 16-5. After this loss, Sindhu has now lost six matches on trot against Tai Tzu Ying.

HS Prannoy crashes out in quarterfinal match

It wasn’t either HS Prannoy’s day out in the middle today. Although Prannoy put a close neck-to-neck fight with Jonatan Christie, it was the latter who came out victorious. He went down against the seventh-seeded Christie in two straight sets by 18-21, 16-21 ending his & India’s campaign at the Malaysia Open 2022.

Earlier, he had stunned world no. 4 Chou Tien Chen in a close contest that lasted more than 30 minutes.