Saina Nehwal and K. Srikanth crashed out of the All England badminton championship to bring an end to the Indian challenge at the $1 million tournament here on Friday.
While Saina couldn’t find answers to the deceptive stroke-play of her nemesis Tai Tzu-Ying, suffering a 21-15, 21-19 loss to the World No. 1 Taiwanese in the quarterfinals, Srikanth went down 21-12, 21-16 to the men’s top seed and World No. 1 Kento Momota later in the day.
Saina is now 5-15 in head-to-head career record with Tzu-Ying and it was her 13th straight defeat against the Taiwanese, who has not lost to the Indian since 2015.
“I had my chances but I got tied up in the last two points,” said Saina.
“I’m happy that I’m getting closer to the top players. I’ve not been sleeping because of a stomach pain, but I’m really happy that I could play two matches here.”
Srikanth, who had a title-less run last season after the high of winning four tournaments in an incredible 2017, suffered his sixth straight loss to the Japanese.
The results (quarterfinals):
Women: Tai Tzu-Ying (Tpe) bt Saina Nehwal 21-15, 21-19; Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt He Bingjiao (Chn) 21-16, 19-21, 21-12.
Men: NG Long Angus (HK) bt Tommy Sugiarto (Ina) 21-16, 14-21, 15-21; Kento Momota (Jpn) bt K. Srikanth 21-12, 21-6.
