NEW DELHI: India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal battled her heart out before going down to Xuerui Li of China in straight-games to crash out of the French Open Super Series in Paris on Thursday.
It was a disastrous day for India at Paris as Ajay Jayaram and Commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa too suffered defeats to draw curtains on the country’s campaign at the event.
Fourth seed Saina lost 18-21, 29-30 to Li in a 48-minute gruelling women’s single match to crash out of the second round for the second time in the last two weeks.
Jayaram, who reached the second round of the men’s singles competition after beating fellow Indian RMV Gurusaidutt last night, suffered a 19-21, 14-21 loss to sixth seed Chinese Jin Chen in a 46-minute hard-fought match.
Jwala and Ashwini too couldn’t get past the sixth seeded Korean combo of Jung Eun Ha and Min Jung Kim and lost 13-21, 12-21 in a match that lasted for 27 minutes.
After a second round exit from Denmark Open last week, Saina was hoping for redemption this week, but even her best effort couldn’t save the Indian as Li was better prepared and matched her shots with equal finesse.
Right from the first point, it was anybody’s game as both Saina and Li fought brutally for each point and went neck and neck till 18-18 before the Chinese registered three straight points to take the bragging rights.
In the second game, Saina lagged behind as Li opened a 9-4 lead but the Indian caught up at 10-10 and even went on to lead 18-13.
However, it was the Chinese who had the last laugh as she closed out the match at 30-29. (PTI)
