Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal suffered a straight game defeat at the hands of sixth-seed Chinese Shixian Wang in the women’s singles quarterfinals to crash out of the World Badminton Championship on Friday.
World number two Saina lost 8-21, 14-21 to Wang in a 34-minute encounter in to draw curtains on India’s challenge in the tournament.
The second-seed Indian, tipped to be one of the hot favourites to win the title, was not at her best and lagged behind right from the start as the Chinese opened up a 3-0 lead in the first game.
Though Saina caught up with her opponent at 6-6, Wang pocketed eight straight points to surge ahead and held her fort as the Indian’s game crumbled.
The second game was no better as once again the Chinese opened up a 3-0 lead early and kept the distance growing. The Hyderabadi tried her bit but could not sustain for long as her World Championship hopes ended in smoke.
