Saina Nehwal knocked out of Thailand Open, India’s hope of women’s singles medal crashes

India’s only hope to score a medal in the Women’s singles category in the Thailand Open 2021 came to a disappointing end as Saina Nehwal lost to Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the second round 23-21, 14-21, 16-21 on Thursday

The first game saw a tough fight between the two, as Nehwal etched her Thai counterpart by two points and secured a 23-21. Busanan had a day full of unforced errors on her serve but Saina could only manage that one set, as the Thai seed made a strong statement with 21-14 and 21-16 in the other two games. By the third game, Saina seemed thoroughly exhausted and moved slowly on the court.

Nehwal’s defeat in the second round of the Super 1000 tournament means there will be no bid by an Indian shuttler in the Women’s singles category. PV Sindhu, the other Indian participant had suffered a loss in her first round.

Coming into this game after battling COVID-19 tests and securing a comfortable 21-15, 21-15 win against Malaysia’s Kisona Selvaduray, Saina was outplayed by 24-year-old Busanan. However, the purple patch for Indian badminton had shown the exit door to Kidambi Srikanth earlier in the day. The former World No 1 took on to social media to announce that he is pulling out due to a calf muscle strain. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost 19-21, 17-21 to Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in just over half an hour on Thursday.

Parupalli Kashyap, who retired in the third game of his first round clash, joined the list of early departures starring PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy.