PV Sindhu suffers second-round exit at Badminton World Championship 2023

Two-time Olympic champion PV Sindhu's poor run at the highest level continued as the star shuttler faced an early exit from the Badminton World Championships 2023 tournament in Copenhagen. Sindhu lost to her familiar foe Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 14-21, 14-21 in less than an hour in the women's singles second round on Tuesday, August 22.

It was Sindhu's 9th defeat to Nozomi Okuhari in 19 meetings. The second-round clash on Tuesday was their first meeting in more than 3 years as the Japanese star, who won the world title beating Sindhu in the final in 2017, has been struggling in the last few years due to persistent injury concerns.

World No. 15 Sindhu struggled to find the lines as she was making quite a few unforced errors in the opening game of the contest. It was Sindhu's first game in Copenhagen as she had received a first-round bye while Okuhara, who has slipped to World No. 36, won



her opening-round contest to set up a clash with Sindhu, who defeated her in the 2019 World Championships final.

Sindhu turned it around in the second game as she raced to a 9-0 lead only to hand the control back to Okuhara, who found her range after change of ends. Okuhara went on a rampage in the second game as she closed out the match in 44 matches, clinching a straight games victory.

It was only the 3rd win of the 2023 season for Okuhara, who will gain a lot of confidence from her second-round win over Sindhu.

Sindhu's attacking game was not on display on Tuesday as she looked rusty and down in confidence for the majority of the contest. The early exit comes as a huge blow to Sindhu's chances of regaining form as she has had disappointing results throughout the year, ever since her return from an injury after winning the Commonwealth Games Gold last year.