Kuala Lumpur, January 10: Ace Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu on Friday faced a crushing defeat at the hands of Tzu Ying Tai of Taiwan to bow out of the women's singles event of the ongoing Malaysia Masters. World No. 2 Tzu Ying defeated sixth-seeded Sindhu 21-12, 21-16 in the quarter-final clash which lasted just 36 minutes. The match started on a furious note with Tzu taking the early lead. However, Sindhu was quick to go on the attack and was able to draw the initial deficit against the World No. 2 at 7-7.

Tzu, however, took better control of the rallies and bagged four straight points to go into the mid-game interval with a two-point advantage. After the break, the top seed shuttler from Taiwan continued to hold an advantage thanks to her superior control and won the opening game 21-16 in just 17 minutes. In the second game, Tzu Ying improved her stroke play and forced Sindhu to go for high risk strokes, resulting in a handsome lead. Malaysia Masters 2020: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal Advance; Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap Exit.

At the interval, Tzu had a seven-point lead over Sindhu and looked all set to march into the semi-finals. Towards the end, the World Champion did manage to save five match points as Tzu looked to relax a bit. However, the struggle was short-lived as Sindhu lost the game 12-21 and exited the Super 500 tournament. This was Sindhu's 12th loss against Tzu Ying and second since the World Championship in Basel in August last year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 10, 2020 03:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).