China Open: Saina Nehwal's struggles continue after early exit
India's women's singles badminton ace Saina Nehwal has been having a difficult time on the court of late. 2019 has been a forgettable year for the shuttler, whose frustrations continued in the ongoing China Open. Saina suffered a first round loss against local favorite Cai Yan Yan. Here are further details regarding Saina's woeful show.
Saina lost 9-21, 12-21 in the women's singles clash that lasted 24 minutes. Saina had no authority on offer and exited the $700,000 tournament in Fuzou. The 29-year-old has been going through a tough phase with regards to her fitness since claiming the Indonesia Masters in January. She suffered three successive first round exits before reaching the quarters of the French Open last month.
Saina will be seen in two more tournament this month. She is set to face Yan Yan in the first round of the Hong Kong Open next week. That will be followed by Korea Masters, where she will meet Sim Yu Jin. Saina has participated in 15 tournament this year and her tally doesn't have a strong reading. It's a concern going into 2020.
Meanwhile, Prupalli Kashyap registered a comfortable straight-game victory over Thailand's Sitthikom Thammasin in the men's singles first round. He beat his opponent 21-14 21-3 in 43 minutes and will face seventh seed Victor Axelson of Denmark next. Sai Praneeth rallied to beat Tommy Sugiarto. He fought back from a game down to win the tie 15-21, 21-12, 21-10. He will face Anders Antonsen next.
Earlier on Tuesday, PV Sindhu suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the opening round. Sindhu has been struggling to do well since her BWF World Championship gold medal win. She had made early exits in China, Korea and Denmark. And now she lost 13-21, 21-18, 19-21 to continue with her poor run of form.
The mixed doubles pair of Pranav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy suffered an early exit as well. The duo went down 14-21, 14-21 to Wang Chi-Lin and Cheng Chi Ya of Chinese Taipei.
