Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu lost in the women’s singles semi-finals at the Malaysia Open 2026 badminton tournament as India’s campaign in the season-opening BWF Super 1000 event came to an end on Saturday.
World No. 18 PV Sindhu went down 21-16, 21-15 against the People’s Republic of China’s Wang Zhiyi, second in the women’s singles badminton rankings, at the Stadium Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.
The opening game was tightly contested, with both players matching each other point for point in the early exchanges. But unforced errors from PV Sindhu allowed Wang Zhiyi to break away from 14-all to an 18-14 lead before closing out the game.
Wang Zhiyi opened up a slender lead early in the second game before the Indian badminton player fought back to take an 11-6 advantage at the mid-game interval.
Wang Zhiyi, though, regrouped after the interval as a flurry of unforced errors from Sindhu allowed the Chinese shuttler to wrest momentum away and close out the match in straight games.
This was PV Sindhu’s third defeat in six matches against Wang Zhiyi. Sindhu’s loss brought down the curtains on India’s campaign at the BWF Super 1000 tournament.
Reigning Asian Games champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were ousted in the quarter-finals on Friday, bringing an end to India’s doubles campaign.
India’s men’s singles campaign had ended on Thursday after Lakshya Sen bowed out at the pre-quarterfinals stage following a straight-game defeat.
PV Sindhu, along with the rest of the Indian contingent, will be seen in action next at the Indian Open 2026, which starts next Tuesday.
She is scheduled to take on Nguyễn Thùy Linh of Vietnam in the opening round at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in Delhi.
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