Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal suffered a major blow as she crashed out of the ongoing Malaysia Open badminton championships after going down in straight games to second-seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan here on Thursday.
The former world No.1 Saina lost 15-21, 13-21 to world No.2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in just 36 minutes in the world tour super 750 tournament in Kualalumpur. This is Saina’s sixth straight loss to the Japanese in seven meetings.
Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu and star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth will aim to book their place in the quarter-finals when they play their respective last-16 matches later today. Sindhu will shuttle it out against local girl Lee Ying Ying in a pre-quarterfinal match of the women’s singles event, while Srikanth will lock horns with Taiwan’s Wang Tzu-wei for a place in last-eight.
