Paris, Aug 1
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu will return home empty-handed this time from the Paris Olympics as she lost to China's He Bing Jiao 19-21, 14-21 in the women's singles Round of 16 clash on Thursday.
Sindhu, who became the first Indian woman to bag two consecutive Olympic medals in Rio 2016 (silver) and Tokyo 2020 (bronze), was trailing from the beginning of the match.
The Chinese shuttler, who lost the bronze medal match against Sindhu in the Tokyo Olympics but defeated the Indian for the bronze medal in the Asian Games at Hangzhou, was the dominant player on the court and kept the Indian on her heels to get every point.
In the first game, Sindhu bounced back after trailing 8-11 and showed her prowess to make it 19-all. But the Chinese gained two consecutive points to take the game 21-19.
In the second game, Sindhu's struggles continued as Bing Jiao, the two-time bronze medallist in the World Championships in 2019 and 2021, headed to the mid-game break with a six-point lead.
The Chinese did not look back and carried on the momentum to seal the match 21-14 in straight games in the 56-minute-long clash.
Before the match, Sindhu was trailing 11-9 in the head-to-head record against 27-year-old Bing Jiao.
Sindhu, the lone Indian in the women's singles draw, joined H.S Prannoy and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty to get ousted from the Paris Olympics on Thursday. Lakshya Sen is now the lone Indian remaining in the fray in men's singles and will play Chinese Taipei's 12th-seeded Chou Tien Chen in a quarterfinal clash.