Paris Olympics 2024 Badminton: PV Sindhu ends campaign after heartbreaking defeat to China's He Bing Jiao in the Round-of-16

It was another heartbreak for India’s shuttlers on Thursday, August 1. Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu saw her campaign at the Paris Olympics 2024 draw to a close after she went down 19-21, 14-21, to China’s He Bing Jiao in the pre-quarterfinals.

The match began with several slow and long rallies, with He Bing Jiao finishing them with some exquisite down-the-line smashes. Jiao quickly took an early 4-1 lead.

Forcing Sindhu into making errors, the Chinese shuttler extended her advantage to 7-2. Despite the extremely long and tiring rallies, Sindhu slowly made her way back, narrowing the gap to 6-9 and then to 8-10. However, Jiao managed to hold an 11-8 at the interval.

Post-interval, Sindhu took two consecutive points to close the gap to a single point and eventually leveled the score at 12-12. After a brief tussle, Jiao regained a three-point lead at 17-14, but Sindhu clawed her way back once again to reach 17-18.

Sindhu leveled things at 19-19, but Jiao's cross-court smash that fell on the line gave her the game point. Another killer cross-court smash after an extremely long rally saw the Chinese take the first game 21-19.

The second game began with a short neck-and-neck battle. Jiao continued to deploy her killer cross-court smashes and surged to a 7-2 lead. Sindhu fought back, taking three consecutive points to make it 5-8. However, Jiao maintained a lead of six points at the interval.

Despite being down 14-6, Sindhu launched a valiant comeback, with her cross-court smashes earning her several points. However, it was too late to make a difference, as Jiao managed to close the set at 21-14 and win the match.

Satwik-Chirag, HS Prannoy also out, Lakshya Sen only Indian singles player to make it to the quarterfinals at the Paris Olympics 2024

Earlier in the day, in an intense all-Indian Round-of-16 clash at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Lakshya Sen got the better of fellow Indian HS Prannoy, who was recovering from chikungunya. Sen delivered a solid performance, securing a place in the quarterfinals with a 21-12, 21-6 win.

India's ace men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also ended their campaign after narrowly losing 21-13, 14-21, and 16-21 to Malaysian pair Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh in a thrilling quarterfinal clash at the Paris 2024 Olympics.