Saina Nehwal's quarterfinal jinx in the World badminton championship continued as the ace Indian shuttler suffered a straight-game defeat against World No. 3 Wang Xin to crash out of the women's singles here on Friday.
World No. 6 Saina, who had reached the quarterfinals in the last two editions too, had to be content with yet another last-eight finish as she lost 21-15, 21-10 in a one-sided 30-minute match.
The 21-year-old Indian struggled with her strokes and committed too many unforced errors to hand the match to the former World No. 1 at the Wembley Arena.
Starting well, but…
Playing with the breeze in the first game, Saina kept her shuttle up during her serves and took a 4-2 lead, but Xin caught up the Indian before breaking off at 9-9.
Saina faltered with her baseline strokes and also failed to negotiate the sharp shots of the Chinese as Xin registered five straight points to move to 14-9, before holding her fort to grab the first game.
The second game started off with long rallies but Xin soon started attacking as Saina panicked and ended up giving a 4-10 lead to the Chinese.
Even though coach Pullela Gopichand tried to motivate Saina, the gulf could not be bridged as Xin controlled the game while anticipating the shots from the Indian. Saina had lost to Xin thrice before but had defeated the Chinese at the Sudirman Cup in May.
Meanwhile, in men's singles, World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei ended one fairytale and continued another as he reached the semifinals.
Lee's 21-7, 21-13 win over Kevin Cordon kept him on course to become the first Malaysian ever to win a world title, but finished the dream of the man from central America.
Jayaram exits
On Thursday, Saina had stormed into the quarterfinals easing past Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong. Saina toyed with her opponent, conceding just three points in the first game. She was leading 13-5 in the second when the 14th seed retired.
Ajay Jayaram lost a gruelling pre-quarterfinal encounter to sixth-seeded Jin Chen. Chen subdued Ajay 21-18, 12-21, 11-21 in a match that lasted more than an hour.
In mixed doubles, Jwala Gutta and V. Diju couldn't get past the fifth-seeded English pair of Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen in the third round. They lost 9-21, 15-21 in 34 minutes.
Important results (quarterfinals): Men's singles: 1-Lee Chong Wei (Mas) bt Kevin Cordon (Gua) 21-7, 21-13.
Men's doubles: 5-Ko Sung Hyun & Yoo Yeon Seong (Kor) bt 4-Koo Kien Keat & Tan Boon Heong (Mas) 21-17, 21-13.
Women's singles: 3-Wang Xin (Chn) bt 6-Saina Nehwal (Ind) 21-15, 21-10;
Women's doubles: 5-Tian Qing & Zhao Yunlei (Chn) bt 4-Mizuki Fujii & Reika Kakiiwa (Ina), 21-16, 21-10.
Thursday's results: Men's singles: Third round: 6-Chen Jin (Chn) bt Ajay Jayaram (Ind) 18-21, 21-12, 21-11.
Women's singles: Third round: 6-Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt 14-Pui Yin Yip (Hkg) 21-3, 13-5, retd.; Women's doubles: Second round: Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponnappa bt 2-Wen Hsing Cheng & Yu Chin Chien (Tai) 21-18, 21-18.
Mixed doubles: Third round: 5-Joachim Fischer Nielsen & Christinna Pedersen (Eng) bt 16-V. Diju & Jwala Gutta 21-9, 21-15.
Keywords: Saina Nehwal, World badminton championship
