Saina Nehwal faces first round defeat, crashes out of China Open

Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal was knocked out of women’s singles event in China Open after facing defeat against Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in Changzhou (China) on Wednesday (September 18).

Former world no. 1 who was making a comeback after recovering from her injuries was beaten 10-21, 17-21 by World no. 19 in a 44 minutes long match.

Saina’s injuries have kept her off the court for the most part of the season and now she faced her second successive defeat to the Thai shuttler.

With Saina being out of the last Super 1000 tournament in World tour, all eyes will now be on the newly crowned world champion PV Sindhu.

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Sindhu who won the world championship gold in Basel, Switzerland last month will be eyeing another major title to make a lead up for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 24-year-old badminton star won her first Superseries title at China Open in 2016 right after being felicitated with the silver medal in Rio Olympics in the same year.

The reigning world champion will start her campaign later in the day with a match against former Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the opening round.

Sindhu, who is entering the tournament as the 5th seed, will try to reach the quarter-final where she’s expected to face tough competition from 3rd seed China’s Chen Yufei.