Sindhu exits in pre-quarters of Japan Masters, India's campaign ends

 India's campaign came to a premature end as double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out in pre-quarterfinals of Kumamoto Masters Japan Super 500 bminton tournament here on Thursday.

World no. 20 Sindhu was lone Indian in contention after exits of Lakshya Sen and women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.

Sindhu squandered a game le to lose 21-17 16-21 17-21 against Cana's Michelle Li, ranked 23rd in world, in a women's singles match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.

It was neck and neck between two shuttlers in first game before Sindhu took a marginal 11-8 le and from re on kept her nose just ahe to take early vantage.

Trailing, Li came out attacking in second game and raced to a 8-3 le before Sindhu clawed back as scoreline re 16-16 at one time.

But Li n upped her game and pocketed five straight points to draw parity in contest.

decider witnessed a close battle between two shuttlers till 17 points when Li forced pace, pocketing four straight points to wrap up match. Canian was also helped by Sindhu's unforced errors.

Li will play Siouth Korea's Yu Jin Sim in quarterfinals.