Thailand Open: PV Sindhu, Sameer Verma crash out of quarterfinals as India's challenge ends in single's event

Sixth-seeded Sindhu was no match to her Thai opponent, who was seeded fourth in the tournament, as she lost eight consecutive points to help Inatnon clinch the first game with great ease.

In the second game, the Indian shuttler’s performance dipped further as she was no match to the Thai sensation as she lost it by 12 points.

Meanwhile, Sameer Verma then suffered a 13-21, 21-19, 20-22 loss to world no. 3, Anders Antonsen, in an extremely close men’s singles quarterfinal match. With Sindhu and Verma’s defeat, India’s challenge in the single’s category came to an end in the tournament.

Former World No. 1 Carolina Marin entered in the women’s singles semi-finals after defeating Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit 21-6, 21-15. The Spaniard will now face South Korean An Se-young in the semi-finals. An Se-young is a formidable teenager who was awarded “Most Promising Player” in 2019.

Earlier in the day, India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponappa stunned fifth seeds Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia in a hard-fought three-game contest to enter the mixed doubles semifinals.

The unseeded Indian pair toiled hard for one hour and 15 minutes to beat their world no. 6 Malaysian opponents 18-21 24-22 22-20 in a nail-biting quarterfinal duel. Rankireddy and Ponappa, world no. 22, will be up against the winners of the last quarterfinal match between top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand and Korean duo of Sung Hyun Ko and Hye Won Eom.