Top-seed Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament on Thursday after she went down to unseeded Zhang Yiman of China 12-21, 17-21 in match that lasted 34 minutes.
Saina Nehwal, who has lost all her first round games in the tournament so far, found herself in a similar position against the world No 226 on Thursday as well. In the first game, it was a dominant show from the Chinese who burst to a 11-8 lead at the halfway mark and then piled on the pressure on the former world No 1 to take the next 10 points in fine style while conceding only three.
In the second game, however, Saina took a massive five-point lead at the start to go 5-0 up but the determined 19-year-old clawed her way back into the match to lead 11-9 at the halfway mark. It was then her turn to open up a seven-point lead at 19-12 before a brief resistance from the world No 10 bridged the gap to 16-19. The comeback was short-lived and Zhang held on to her nerves to take the game 21-17 to ensure yet another quarterfinal exit for Saina Nehwal.
Saina, who had to undergo a surgery in August, is yet to go past the last eight stage of a tournament since her recovery after she crashed out in a similar stage at the Hong Kong Open earlier this month and had a first-round loss in the China Open. She had beaten
With Saina’s exit, B Sai Praneeth who takes on Chinese Zhao Jun Peng later in the day, is the only Indian left in the tournament.
