Badminton

PV Sindhu's title drought continues as she bows out of Spain Masters in the quarter-finals. The former world champion fought valiantly but ultimately fell short against Thai sixth seed Supanida Katethong in a marathon three-game battle.Sindhu, the effective top seed in the absence of local favorite Carolina Marin, had a golden opportunity to end her title drought. However, Katethong proved to be a formidable opponent, pushing the match to a nail-biting decider.In the first game, Sindhu squandered four game points before securing the win. The second game was also closely contested, but Katethong's consistency proved too much for the Indian.The decider was a rollercoaster of emotions. Sindhu trailed 15-20 but staged a remarkable comeback to level the score at 20-all. However, uncharacteristic errors from Sindhu allowed Katethong to snatch the victory 24-26, 21-17, 22-20.In a moment of frustration, Sindhu smashed her racquet on the court, earning a yellow card from the chair umpire. It was a rare display of emotion from the usually composed Indian.Despite Sindhu's exit, India's mixed pair N Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy continued their impressive run by reaching the semi-finals. They defeated Indonesian fourth seeds Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto and Lisa Ayu Kusumawati in three games.However, women's doubles third seeds Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa and men's doubles eighth seeds Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun both suffered quarter-final defeats.Sindhu's next tournament will be the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo, China, in April. She will be hoping to break her title drought and regain her winning form.

PV Sindhu, the two-time Olympic medalist and former world champion, has advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the Madrid Spain Masters badminton tournament. In her first-round match on Wednesday, Sindhu defeated Canada's Wen Yu Zhang 21-16, 21-12, in 30 minutes. The second-seeded Sindhu, currently ranked 11th in the world, will face world No. 63 Huang Yu-Husn of Chinese Taipei in the round of 16.However, India's other challenger in the women's singles, Ashmita Chaliha, crashed out in the first round, losing to Ratchanok Intanon 21-13, 21-11 in 28 minutes. India also had a disappointing start in the men's singles event, with Sathish Kumar Karunakaran losing his closely fought first-round match to Jason Teh of Indonesia, the 56th-ranked shuttler.Karunakaran also teamed up with Aadya Variath in mixed doubles competition, but they lost to Indonesia's Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Menthari 21-18, 21-14. Following Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen's withdrawal, Kidambi Srikanth, who was the spearhead of India's men's singles challenge in this tournament, registered a 21-18, 21-15 loss to Japan's Koo Takahashi in the first round.Mithun Manjunath also lost his first-round game against Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei 21-11, 21-12. However, the mixed doubles duo of BS Reddy-N Sikki Reddy marched into pre-quarters following a 16-21, 22-20, 21-14 win over Chinese Taipei's Chen Zhi Ray and Yang Ching Tun.The Madrid Spain Masters 2024 offers players ranking points for the Paris 2024 Olympics, taking place from July-August this year. The ranking period for badminton began on May 1, 2023, and will end next month.