Asiad 2018: Indian women's badminton team crash out in quarters

Jakarta: India crashed out of the Asian Games womens badminton team event on Monday after going down 1-3 to a formidable Japan in the quarter-finals here on Monday.

India failed to emulate their 2014 Incheon bronze medal feat here, as only Rio Olympics silver medallist P.V.Sindhu managed to pull off a narrow win over world number one Akane Yamaguchi in the singles match, while her compatriot Saina Nehwal and the women's doubles pair of Sindhu and Ashwini Ponnappa, and N.Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sunil lost their respective matches.

In what turned out to be a close affair in the opening singles match, Sindhu got the better of Yamaguchi 21-18, 21-19. Sindhu, who took 41 minutes to put India ahead, had also beaten Yamaguchi at the recent World Championship on the way to the final.

Japan equalised the affair 1-1, after Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hiroto thrashed the Indian pair of Sikki and Arathi in straight games to 21-15, 21-6.

Thereafter in the second singles match, Saina made a dramatic comeback to save four match points in the second game before going down to Nozomi Okuhara 11-21, 25-23, 16-21 in one hour and 11 minutes.

Trailing 1-2 in the affair, India then lost the must-win fourth match, with Sindhu and Ashwini meekly surrendering 13-21, 12-21 to Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahasi.