Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu put on a valiant effort but fell short as she crashed out in the quarter-finals of the BWF World Championships 2025 badminton in Paris on Friday.
PV Sindhu, 15th in the women’s singles badminton rankings, was beaten 21-14, 13-21, 21-16 by world No. 9 Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia.
Competing at the Adidas Arena, PV Sindhu was slow off the blocks and trailed 11-7 at the interval before conceding the first game.
She fought back in the second by using her long reach to effectively cover the court while Putri Kusuma Wardani made some unforced errors as the match went into a decider.
The decider was evenly contested, with PV Sindhu ensuring that Putri Kusuma Wardani didn’t open a gap of more than three points for the majority of the third game.
However, the Indian badminton player conceded four straight points while trailing 17-16 as Putri Kusuma Wardani went on to win a hard-fought contest in an hour and four minutes.
This was PV Sindhu’s third loss in five meetings against Putri Kusuma Wardani. A victory would have made five-time medallist Sindhu the outright record-holder for most women’s singles medals at the BWF World Championships, surpassing Zhang Ning.
In the mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto were ousted in the quarter-finals after losing to fourth seeds Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei of Malaysia.
The Indian duo began brightly, taking an 8-3 lead in the opener but lost their rhythm soon after and slipped to a 21-15, 21-13 defeat in just 37 minutes.
India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the ninth seeds in men’s doubles, will be in action later in the day. They will take on second seeds and two-time Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia.