Asian Badminton C’ship: Saina bows out in the second round

Qingdao (China): India's top shuttler Saina Nehwal, World No.5, crashed out of the Asian Badminton Championship with a shocking second round loss in the women's singles here Thursday.

With the loss, India's campaign also came to an end on just the third day of the tournament.

Saina, seeded fifth, suffered a surprise loss to unseeded Xiao Jia Chen of China 13-21, 16-21 in just 45 minutes.

Among other Indians in fray, Sai Praneeth B. also suffered a loss in the third round as he went down 9-21, 18-21 to eight seed Zhengming Wang of China.

In the mixed doubles, the World number 16 pair of V. Diju and Jwala Gutta lost 14-21, 21-11, 17-21 against South Korean duo of Sa Rang Kim and Hye In Choi.

The other Indian mixed doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pradnya Gadre lost their second round encounter 19-21, 7-21 to Hong Kong's Wai Hong Wong and Hoi Wah Chau.

Women's doubles pair of Pradnya Gadre and Prajakta Sawant also made a second round exit losing 17-21, 12-21 to Thai duo of Duanganong Aroonkesorn and Kunchala Voravichitchaikul. (IANS)