Reigning world badminton champion PV Sindhu suffered yet another semi-final defeat at the prestigious All England Championships as she went down tamely in straight games to Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the women’s singles here on Saturday.

Sindhu, the Olympic silver medallist, couldn’t match the pace, power and precision of her younger world No. 11 rival Chochowong and lost 17-21, 9-21 in a match that lasted 43 minutes. The world No. 7 Indian had also lost in the semi-final of the 2018 edition as well.

“I think it was her day, everything she was hitting was on the line, I just couldn’t do anything about it. Overall, I should’ve controlled my unforced errors, maybe things could’ve been different,” Sindhu said.

“I knew it was going to be a good match, she’s not an easy player. Her strokes are really good and she’s going to be a really good player.

“Everybody aims to be in the final, it’s over for now so I have to learn from my mistakes and take the positives. I don’t have a tournament for another month so I have time to prepare and come back stronger,” Sindhu, the Olympic silver medallist, said.

Sindhu came into the semi-final contest with an overwhelming 4-1 head-to-head lead over the 23-year-old Chochuwong, whom she had beaten at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals in January.

But all that statistics didn’t matter as Chochowong showed immaculate defence and played at a searing pace to outclass the Indian.

On Friday night, Sindhu, seeded fifth, had defeated Japan’s third seed Akane Yamaguchi 16-21, 21-16, 21-19 in an intriguing quarter-final match to make it to the last eight stage.

Sindhu had battled for an hour and 16 minutes to eke out her first win over world No.5 Yamaguchi in last four meetings.

“I am playing against her after quite a long time. I’m sure she would have trained very hard. The match was a good, tough long match I would say,” she had said.

Sindhu played an aggressive game, matching Yamaguchi with her speed and retrieving skills but unforced errors allowed the Japanese to jump to a 11-6 lead, a deficit she couldn’t overcome.