Sindhu, Srikanth lose their opening matches in World Tour Finals

Bangkok: Star Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth fought their hearts out before suffering close defeats in their respective group 'B' openers at the USD 1.5 million HSBC BWF World Tour Finals here on Wednesday.

A week after a demoralising defeat at the Toyota Thailand Open quarterfinals, world champion Sindhu produced a much-improved performance but still lost to world number one Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan 21-19 12-21 17-21.

"It was a good match, there were no easy points. In the third game I came back and it was just one point difference at one stage. I broke my racket strings twice (during rallies) and that made a difference," Sindhu said.

"It's a tough group. I have to give 100 per cent."

It was Sindhu's 16th defeat to Tzu Ying in 21 meetings.

Former world number one Srikanth too squandered an opening game advantage, losing 21-15 16-21 18-21 to world number three Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a gruelling 77-minute

contest.

"I can't say I'm happy with the way I played today, because I was playing much better in training before I came here," Srikanth

said.

"I had my chances today, I could have won from 17-16 in the third. Main motto for me is to play as many matches as possible, because I haven't been winning matches over the last two years. So, I really want to play matches with the top-eight players."