loses to Porntip in 2nd Rd of Hong Kong Open; Ajay ousted too
Saina Nehwal’s poor run continued this season as she crashed out of the women’s singles competition after suffering a narrow defeat against Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand in the second round of the Hong Kong Super Series badminton tournament in Kowloon here on Thursday.
Seventh seed Saina, who improved a rung in the world rankings on Thursday to be sixth, lost 17-21, 21-9, 15-21 to Porntip, who jumped three places to world number 10, at the Hong Kong Coliseum here. Ajay Jayaram’s campaign in the men’s singles competition also came to an end after he went down 18-21, 12-21 to Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia in a 36-minute match. Olympic bronze medallist, Saina, held a 6-0 record against the Thai girl before the match but it counted for little during the 50-minute battle between the two shuttlers.
Saina tried to dominate the nets but Porntip didn’t give her too many opportunities. She had all the answers to Saina’s smashes, four more than the Indian. The first game saw Porntip breaking free at 10-10 after Saina had opened up a 7-4 early lead. The Thai girl was better prepared for the battle as she registered five straight points to create a huge gap between her and Saina and then kept her nose ahead to lead 1-0.
In the second game, Saina came back firing on all cylinders and after being locked 4-4 early on, dominated the proceedings completely, accumulating points at will. She reached 10-4 and then moved to 14-6 as Porntip’s game crumbled. In the decider, however, Porntip got her act together and led 3-0 initially. Saina could pose a fight only for the next two points but after that the Thai girl managed to shut the door.
The other Indian in fray, Ajay failed to negotiate the powerful smashes of Sony, who registered as many as 17 smash winners, compared to the Indian’s 4.