The Indian women’s team lost to Japan 1-4 in their second round-robin best-of-five tie at the Badminton Asia Team Championships on Thursday.
World No 4 PV Sindhu beat the second-ranked Akane Yamaguchi in straight games in the first match of the tie but that was to be India’s only success. In their first meeting since that gruelling Dubai World Superseries Finals summit clash in December, Sindhu came out on top 21-19, 21-15 in just 36 minutes.
In the second women’s singles match, world No 13 Sayaka Sato beat Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli 21-12, 21-12. Doubles specialist Ashwini Ponnappa then played the third singles match for India but failed as world No 16 Aya Ohori beat her 21-14, 21-12.
Japan then put the tie beyond India’s reach in the first women’s doubles encounter, with Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto defeating Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant 21-17, 21-17.
Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi then made it 4-1 after beating Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy 21-18, 21-18.
The defeat won’t matter, though, as India have already qualified for the quarter-finals.
The Indian men’s team will take on Indonesia later in the day in what is bound to be another tough tie.