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India shuttler Saina Nehwal on Thursday made a second-round exit from the ongoing Thailand Open. The world no. 20 suffered a hard-fought 23-21, 14-21, 16-21 defeat against local star Busanan Ongbamrungphan. The match saw both the shuttlers tussle for over an hour ended with Saina winning the first game but failing to make an impact in the next two.
The 30-year-old started off on a strong note but soon faltered as she conceded a 9-11 lead at the mid-game break. However, the Olympic bronze-medallist bounced back strong and went on to win the first game 23-21 in 26 minutes.
However, after the first game, Ongbamrungphan didn’t allow the Indian any chance to exploit as she won the second game in a convincing fashion. In the final game, the Thai maintained the same tempo and went on to win it 21-16 to enter the quarterfinals.
In the opening round, Saina had registered a comfortable 21-15, 21-15 win over Kisona Selvaduray of Malaysia.
After Sania’s defeat, India`s challenge in both the women`s and men’s singles event has come to an end at the tournament. Sixth-seeded PV Sindhu had lost her opening round match 21-16, 24-26, 13-21 to world No.18 Mia Blichfeldt on Wednesday.
Kidambi Srikanth, who had also made it to the second round, on Thursday pulled out of the tournament before the start of his clash due to a calf muscle strain. Kidambi was slated to face Malaysia`s Lee Zii Jia but the later will go through with the Indian pulling out and offering a walkover.
Earlier in the day, the star Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty crashed out of the men`s doubles event after suffering a straight-games defeat in their second-round contest. Satwik-Chirag suffered a 19-21, 17-21 defeat against the Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in a match that lasted 34 minutes.
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