Saina bows out of Asian junior badminton
India’s hopes of winning their first ever Asian junior badminton title was dashed as starlet Saina Nehwal bowed out in the third round of the girls’ singles event at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The second seed Indian went down against her unheralded Chinese opponent Wen Cheng in a three setter, losing 16-21 21-19 10-21.
The 16-year-old, who shot into limelight after her triumph in the elite Philippines Open last month, came from behind to pull off the second set and level scores but the Chinese rose to the occasion in the decider to seal the matter in her favour.
Indian shuttlers had a generally bad day as none of them tasted success in any of the events yesterday.
Ruth Misha and Gayatri Vartak lost their respective third round matches in the girls’ singles, while in the doubles Misha met a similar luck alongside Nischita.
Among the boys, Akshay Dewalkar was trounced in the third round of the singles and also went down in the doubles where he partnered Jishnu Sanyal.
Misa lost to Megumi Taruno of Japan 12-21 7-21 without any resistance and Vartak was tamed by Stephanie Sugumaran of Malaysia 16-21 21-23.
The combination of Vartak and Nischita could do no better against the Thai team comprising Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and Nuttaya Sanlekanun, who won 21-13 21-16.
Dewalkar lost to Lu Qicheng of China 17-21 11-21 in the singles and with Jishnu Sanyal in the doubles he lost to Wong Zi Liang and Tang Yew Loong Johnathan of Singapore 2321 12-21 18-21.
In mixed doubles, Vijay Ram C and Ponnappa Ashwini lost 14-21 13-21 to Chinese duo of Li Tian and Ma Jin in the second round.