The 30-year-old Indian lost 23-21, 14-21, 16-21 in a match that lasted for 68 minutes to bow out of the Super 1000 tournament…reports Asian Lite News
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal on Thursday crashed out of the ongoing Thailand Open after suffering a hard-fought second round defeat against local Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
The 30-year-old Indian lost 23-21, 14-21, 16-21 in a match that lasted for 68 minutes to bow out of the Super 1000 tournament.
Saina started the first game well but she squandered some chances and conceded a 9-11 lead at the mid-game break. However, the Olympic bronze-medallist came back strongly and used all her experience to take the first game 23-21 in 26 minutes.
Ongbamrungphan then staged a stunning comeback and didn’t provide her Indian opponent to rule the next game, winning it 14-21 and taking the match into the decider.
In the final game, the Thai upped her game by a notch and won 21-16 to enter the quarterfinals.
In the previous round, Saina had registered a comfortable 21-15, 21-15 win over Kisona Selvaduray of Malaysia.
With Saina’s loss, India’s challenge in the women’s singles event has come to an end at the tournament. Sixth-seeded PV Sindhu had lost her opening round match 21-16, 24-26, 13-21 to world No.18 Mia Blichfeldt on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth also pulled out of the tournament before the start of his second-round match due to a calf muscle strain. Kidambi was slated to face Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia but the later will go through with the Indian pulling out and offering a walkover.
“Very sad to let you all know that I have been advised to pull out of Thailand Open due to a calf muscle strain. I am hoping to be fit by next week for the next round of the Thailand leg,” Srikanth said in a tweet.
Earlier in the day, the star Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty crashed out of the men’s doubles event after suffering a straight-games defeat in their second-round contest.
Satwik-Chirag suffered a 19-21, 17-21 defeat against the Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in a match that lasted 34 minutes.
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