Saina crashes out in quarters of Singapore Super Series

Singapore: Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal made a shock exit from the Singapore Super Series after losing her women’s singles quarter-final to Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri, here today. The world number two Indian squandered a one-game lead to go down 21-17 13-21 13-21 in little less than hour against unseeded Fanetri at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. It was a neck-and-neck battle till the first 10 points of the opening game before Saina took a three point lead at 14-11. [caption id=“attachment_895575” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Saina Nehwal has yet to win a tournament this year. PTI[/caption] The Indian increased her lead to 17-13 before Fanetri clawed her way back to reduce the margin to just one point at 18-17. But Saina regained her composure and pocketed three straight points to close the game in her favour. The Indonesian, however, started the second game on a bright note and opened up a 7-4 lead over Saina. Riding on her smashes and delicate net play, Fanetri increased her lead to 19-10 before sealing the game in her favour to level the scores. The win in the second game gave immense confidence to Fanetri of registering an upset victory over her higher-ranked opponent as she carried on her good form to open up a 12-3 lead over Saina with clear winners. The Indonesian did not give any chance to Saina to make a comeback as she increased her lead to 19-9 before giving the knockout punch to the second seeded Indian. All other Indians in the fray have already bowed out of the competition after losing their respective second round matches. PTI