‘Unfair’: Why PV Sindhu lost her cool at BAC semifinals? Watch video

During the match against Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, Sindhu was leading 14-11 in the second game, while she had already won the first one. In the midway, she was handed a point penalty for taking too much time to serve between points. 

Sindhu was seen having an animated discussion with the chief referee after the chair umpire asked her to hand over the shuttle to her opponent but it all fell on deaf ears. Following this, the two-time Olympic medallist lost her momentum, losing the match eventually.

Later the badminton star said, “The umpire told me you’re taking a lot of time but the opponent wasn’t ready at that point. But the umpire suddenly gave her the point and it was really unfair. I think that was one of the reasons why I lost.”

“I mean that is my feeling because at that moment it was 14-11 and could have become 15-11 but instead, it became 14-12 and she took continuous points. And I think it was very unfair. Maybe I would have won the match and played in the final.”

“I told the chief referee, he came and said it is already done. As a chief referee, you need to at least make sure what was the mistake. May be, he should have seen the replay and should have done something about it.”

Sindhu lost the match at 21-13 19-21 16-21 to eventually sign off with a bronze medal.

Even though there were speculations that Sindhu might not be accepting the bronze after she skipped the medal ceremony but the star herself put those to rest with a tweet and a candid picture of her posing with medal.

She said in a tweet, “A medal at the end of an excruciating campaign is always special. This could have gone the distance. Looking forward to the next.”

Sindhu’s father PV Ramana said Sindhu was extremely disappointed with the decision.

“She was confident of winning a gold this time and so was very disappointed. She was crying when she spoke to me but I told her that it is done and dusted and she should forget about it,” Ramanna told PTI.