India’s star shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Thailand Open Super 1000 Badminton Tournament after losing to Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the second round of women’s singles on Thursday. Saina managed to win the first game, but could not maintain her rhythm after that and lost 23-21, 14-21, 16-21 in a 68-minute match. This is Saina’s fourth consecutive defeat at the hands of 12th ranked Busanan in the world.
Kidambi Srikanth, a former world number one player in the Men’s Singles, had to give a walkover to eighth seed Malaysian Lee Zii Jia due to a hamstring injury to his right leg. Earlier in the men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty of India were also eliminated after losing 19-21 17-21 to Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia. There were long rallies between Saina and Busanan, but the Thai player made good shots, which benefited herm. In the first game, Saina was leading 6-5 at one time, but Busanan was leading 11-9 at the break.
Saina, however, bounced back after that and equalized the score at 17 all. Saina won the first game as Busanan’s loose return got tangled on the net. In the second game, Saina made some mistakes, taking advantage of which Busanan went ahead 11-6. Even after this, she maintained her lead and brought the match on par against her opponent. Busan also dominated from the start in the third and deciding game. Saina also tried to make a comeback but by the break the Thai player had a good 11–7 lead. Busanan finally got six match points, of which Saina was able to defend two.