PV Sindhu suffers semifinal heartbreak as India’s campaign ends in Malaysia

Coming off an injury-induced lay off, PV Sindhu looked good to go all the way at the Malaysia Open but on Saturday she failed to breach the China Wall. With Sindhu’s semifinal loss to Wang Zhiyi, India’s campaign in the season opening BWF Super 1000 event has come to an end.

Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu went down 21-16, 21-15 against the People’s Republic of China’s Wang Zhiyi, seeded second in the women’s singles rankings, at the Stadium Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

The opening game was tightly contested, with both players matching each other point for point in the early exchanges. But unforced errors from World No.18 Sindhu allowed Wang Zhiyi to break away from 14-all to an 18-14 lead before closing out the game.

Wang Zhiyi opened up a slender lead early in the second game before Sindhu fought back to take an 11-6 advantage at the mid-game interval. Wang Zhiyi, though, regrouped after the interval as a flurry of unforced errors from Sindhu allowed the Chinese shuttler to wrest momentum away and close out the match in straight games.

This was Sindhu’s third defeat in six matches against Wang Zhiyi. Sindhu’s loss brought down the curtains on India’s campaign at the BWF Super 1000 tournament.

Reigning Asian Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were ousted in the quarter-finals on Friday, bringing an end to India’s doubles campaign.

India’s men’s singles campaign had ended on Thursday after Lakshya Sen bowed out at the pre-quarterfinals stage following a straight-game defeat.

PV Sindhu, along with the rest of the Indian contingent, will be seen in action next at the Indian Open 2026, which starts next Tuesday. She is scheduled to take on Nguyễn Thùy Linh of Vietnam in the opening round at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in Delhi.