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.
The Times Of India