India's hopes of a first-ever Olympic gold in badminton ended in despair as reigning world champion P.V. Sindhu went down fighting to Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying in the semifinal of the women's singles badminton at the Tokyo Olympics today.
The second-seeded shuttler proved to be too strong for Sindhu, as the former prevailed 21-18, 21-12 in highly-anticipated clash. Sindhu put up a fierce fight in the first set, but was blown away in the second.
In the other semifinal, China's Chen Yu Fei stormed into the Olympics final as she beat He Bingjiao 21-16 13-21 21-12.
The 26-year-old Indian, who won the silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, had beaten fourth-seeded Akane Yamaguchi 21-13 22-20 in the quarterfinal yesterday.
She was the lone Indian in fray in badminton after men's singles player B Sai Praneeth and the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy failed to qualify for the knockout stage.
