Top seed Saina Nehwal knocked out of French Open

World number two Saina Nehwal’s miserable run continued as the Indian shuttler suffered a straight games defeat at the hands of Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the quarterfinals of the French Open Super Series on Friday.

The top seed Saina was not in her elements today and lost the match 9-21, 15-21 in just 39 minutes. With Saina’s defeat, the Indian campaign also ended at the tournament as H S Prannoy, Ajay Jayaram, and women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in the second round on Thursday.

In the second round match, Saina dished out a superb game to see off the World Championship bronze medallist Mitani 21-19, 21-16 in a 41-minute match to set up a fight with eight seed Intanon.

This is Saina’s third successive early exit after being eliminated in initial rounds of Japan Open and Denmark Open by Japanese Minatsu Mitani.