Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was the only bright spot in what turned out to be a dismal day for the Indian badminton team as it crashed out of the prestigious Sudirman Cup after a 1-4 loss to three-time champions Korea in a Group 1D tie on Wednesday.
World No. 2 Saina produced a determined performance to edge out former world no. 5 Bae Yeon Ju 22-20, 17-21 , 21-13 in the women's singles but no other Indian could outwit the Koreans as their campaign ended on a disappointing note.
India were pegged back 0-1 after men's doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar went down 10-21, 19-21 to World No 8 pair of Kim Gi Jung and Kim Sa Rang.
The 25-year-old Saina then brought India back in the contest but once Parupalli Kashyap's gritty fight against world no. 5 Son Wan Ho ended with a 21-13, 14-21, 13-21 loss, the writing was on the wall for India.
2011 World Championship bronze medallist combo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa then conjured up hopes of a win before going down fighting 21-18, 12-21, 12-21 to Chang Ye Na and Jung Kyung Eun.
India's mixed doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sikki Reddy N then lost 12-21, 20-22 to Kim Ha Na and Ko Sung Hyun in the final match to end the agony for India.
In women's singles, Korea fielded Ju Bae ahead of World No 7 Sung Ji Hyun against Saina probably because of her better record against the Indian and the ploy seemed to work initially.
Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand then handed Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap the responsibility of taming Son, whom he had beaten in straight games at the Singapore Open last month.
Kashyap led 4-1 initially but Son twice grabbed the lead at 8-6 and 12-10. The Indian, however, fought back to clinch the opening game to conjured up hopes of a win. But Son edged ahead in the second game at 10-7 and even though Kashyap had clawed back with three points, the Korean marched ahead in giant steps.
In the decider, Kashyap failed to curb his errors as he lost quite a few points hitting wide and long, and also rushed into a few shots to see Son holding 11-8 advantage and then zoomed ahead to a 17-12 lead. Eventually, a miscued shot from Kashyap took Son to a 20-13 lead before the Korean sealed the match with a powerful smash to make it 2-1 in favour of his team.