PV Sindhu loses to Marin in ill-tempered semifinal

Odense (Denmark) : Struggling Indian shuttler PV Sindhu lost to her old nemesis Carolina Marin of Spain in three games in an ill-tempered semifinal of the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament, which saw both players receive yellow cards for verbal exchanges, here on Saturday.

Sindhu, who has been struggling the whole season, lost 18-21, 21-19, 7-21 in the match that lasted one hour and 13 minutes. This was Sindhu's fifth loss on the trot against Marin who had beaten the Indian in that memorable 2016 Rio Olympics final as well as the 2018 World Championships summit clash.

World number 12 Sindhu and Marin, currently ranked sixth, had earlier talked about good camaraderie between them but they showed none of it on the court on Saturday. Both were warned verbally by the umpire multiple times before being shown yellow cards in the deciding game. The umpire initially called both the players to tone down their celebrations after winning points. But Marin continued to scream and celebrate while Sindhu was warned twice for taking longer time in receiving serve. Marin was warned twice for loud celebrations after taking the first game 21-18. In the decider after Sindhu won the second game, the umpire warned the Indian to be ready to receive serve quickly.

At that point, Sindhu was heard saying 'you allowed her to shout, so you ask her and then I will be ready'. Just after that, the shuttle fell on Sindhu's court and both reached to pick it, leading to another verbal altercation.

The chair umpire called both the players and flashed yellow cards to them. Marin was also told not to pick shuttle from Sindhu's side. In the first game, the two were locked 3-3 and then 7-7. Moments of brilliance were followed by odd errors from both as the score read 18-18.