NEW DELHI, AUG 20 (PTI): India suffered a big blow at the World Championships as PV Sindhu and Ayush Shetty faced contrasting defeats in the pre-quarterfinals, bringing the country’s singles campaign to an end here on Thursday.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu’s hopes of winning an unprecedented sixth World Championships medal ended with a gruelling 11-21 21-15 17-21 loss to China’s world No. 3 Wang Zhi Yi, who battled severe cramps in both legs to advance to the quarterfinals.
Earlier, Shetty suffered a tame 19-21 11-21 defeat against Indonesian nemesis Alwi Farhan in the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals.
The 21-year-old Shetty, who had created a flutter by stunning defending champion and world No. 1 Shi Yu Qi in the opening round, went down 19-21 11-21 to world No. 12 Farhan.
It was his fifth defeat in eight meetings against the 11th-seeded Indonesian, bringing the curtains down on India’s men’s singles campaign. Lakshya Sen had bowed out of the premier tournament on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, India’s women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand moved a step closer to a medal by reaching the quarterfinals with a straight-game win over Japanese seventh seeds Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi.
The unseeded Indian pair, on a comeback trail after Treesa recovered from an injury, produced a dominant performance to outwit the world No. 7 Japanese pair 21-16 21-12 in a one-sided contest.
It was the first quarterfinal appearance by an Indian women’s doubles pair at the World Championships since Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa achieved the feat in 2015.