Jakarta: Defending champion Saina Nehwal suffered a shock exit at the Indonesia Master Super 500 tournament after going down to Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi in the opening round here Wednesday.
Saina, who had who had won this tournament last year before going through a lean patch, lost 19-21, 13-21, 5-21 to Takahashi in a gruelling 50-minute contest.
The London Olympics bronze medallist had reached the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters last week.
In the men’s singles, it was curtains for world championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth and Sourabh Verma.
World No.12 Srikanth went down to local favourite Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 21-18, 12-21, 14-21 in a match that lasted one hour and three minutes.
This was Srikanth’s second consecutive opening-round defeat this season. He had earlier also made a first-round exit from the Malaysia Masters.
Praneeth, who like Srikanth had also been ousted in the opening round of the Malaysia Masters, lost to the eighth seeded Chinese Shi Yu Qi 21-16, 18-21, 10-21. Sourabh lost 21-17, 15-21, 10-21 to China’s Lu Guang Zu.
In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy went down in straight games to the South Korean combination of Ko Sung Hyun and Eom Hye Won 8-21, 14-21.
PTI
