Star India shuttler Saina Nehwal was knocked out of the Yonex Thailand Open Super 1000 event after losing the women’s singles second round to Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan here on Thursday.
In a battle of attrition, Saina managed to grab the opening game but ran out of steam in the end, losing 23-21, 14-21, 16-21 in a match that clocked 68 minutes. It was Saina’s fourth straight loss to the world number 12 Busanan.
In the men’s singles, former world number one Kidambi Srikanth was forced to give a walkover to his eighth seeded Malaysian opponent Lee Zii Jia after pulling up his right calf muscle.
Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also bowed out of the competition after suffering a 19-21, 17-21 defeat against second seeded Indonesian combination of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
Later, Satwik and his mixed doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa went down 12-21, 17-21 to Hong Kong pairing of Chang Tak Ching and Ng Wing Yung to draw curtains on India’s campaign.
