Jiang ends sindhu’s dream run

India's campaign at the Li Ning China Masters came to an end with both PV Sindhu and Ajay Jayaram crashing out in contrasting styles at the semifinal stage in Changzhou on Saturday.

While Sindhu, ranked 24 in the world, fought hard before going down to fourth seed and World No 9 Yanjiao Jiang of China in three tough games, Jayaram lost tamely to Hong Kong's Yun Hu.
Sindhu, who had on Friday registered the greatest victory of her fledgling career by consuming London Olympics singles gold medallist Li Xuerui, took time to find her feet in Saturday's last-four encounter. The 17-year-old Hyderabadi lost the first game in just 14 minutes, but fought back to force a decider. Neither player was willing to give an inch in the third, but it was Jiang who reigned supreme to post a 21-10 14-21 21-19 victory. The match lasted an hour and six minutes.

The men's singles semifinal between Jayaram and Hu did not last even three quarters of an hour. In their second head-to-head clash, the 21st-ranked Hu won 21-16 21-18 to maintain a 100% success rate against Jayaram, three years after the first win.
Jayaram was left pondering over what went wrong. “I am not satisfied with today's performance. I had a good chance but strategically I was wrong,” Jayaram told DNA. “I went too much for the attack. I  should have played with a little more variation. I should have been a little more patient.”

The 24-year-old from Bangalore said it was a good week overall which saw him beat Japan's Kenichi Tago in the first round. “All in all, it was a good tournament.”

Jayaram, who missed out on an Olympic berth to Parupalli Kashyap at the last minute, said he had put that behind to focus on winning a Super Series title. “It (missing out on Olympics) was definitely disappointing. But, with so many tournaments, I have a chance to win the titles and look ahead,” he said.

Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand said he was “dejected” with Jayaram's performance but was pleased with Sindhu's. “Sindhu was fantastic in the tournament, she was positive. It could have been anybody's game. The third game was too narrow. She had to play one kind of game against Li Xuerui in the quarters and another kind of game against Jiang in the semifinal. Today, it was about longer rallies. She had to dig deep and get going. Overall, it was a very good show by Sindhu.”

The Indian shuttlers travel to Tokyo for the Yonex Open Japan beginning on September 18.

Getting better: Saina
Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal is back and training in Hyderabad. The Olympic bronze medallist chose to skip the ongoing Li Ning China Masters as well as next week’s Yonex Open Japan 2012 in Tokyo to give her knee ample time to recover. Saina, who was in Tirupati on Saturday, said: “I will be back in action for the Denmark Open (October 16-21) and French Open (October 23-28) next month.”
About her injury, Saina said: “I had a pain in the knee before the Olympics and it prolonged. Now it is getting better and I am back training.”guru.krishnan@dnaindia.net

Results (singles semifinals)
Men: Yun Hu (HKG) bt Ajay Jayaram (IND) 21-16 21-18; 1-Long chen (CHN) bt Pengyu Du (CHN) walkover. Women: 4-Yanjiao Jiang (CHN) bt PV Sindhu (IND)  21-10 14-21 21-19;  1-Yihan Wang (CHN) bt Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA) 21-13 21-9