Saina Nehwal loses in All England quarters

Saina Nehwal’s wait for the prestigious All England title continues following her loss to Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei 21-15, 21-16 in the quarter-finals at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham on Friday. With Saina’s loss, Indian challenge at the blue riband event of world badminton came to an end. In spite of attaining the No.1 rank last year and winning silver at the World Championships, Saina has been unable to find a way past Tai, failing to beat the world No.9 since losing to her in Hong Kong in Nov 2014. Friday’s victory was Tai’s fifth consecutive victory against Saina.

On Friday, Saina was watchful at the net but rattled by some of Tai’s deceptive half smashes, particularly in the forehand corner. Tai was at her retrieving best and though Saina came back from big deficits, the Chinese Taipei player maintained at least a two-point lead for most part of the match.

Tai dictated terms from the start, controlling the pace of the game and preventing Saina from playing her trademark aggressive game. Whenever Saina tried to break free, Tai brought her to the front and managed to find gaps with effortless ease.

Meanwhile, Chinese superstars Li Xuerui, Wang Yihan and Shixian Wang reached the quarter-finals without much difficulty. Late on Friday, Xuerui will face Shixian while Yihan will play Japanese sensation Nozomi Okuhara. Defending champion and world No.1 Carolina Marin will clash with former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the other quarter-final.

Meanwhile, the Championships witnessed another major upset when two-time World and defending champion Chen Long crashed out of the tournament. The world No.1 went down to his friend Xue Song in straight games 19-21, 17-21. Title favourite Lin Dan of Chian faced no such problems as he defeated Japan’s Sho Sasaki 20-22, 21-6, 21-8.

Sai Praneeth lost to Hans Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark 21-12, 11-21, 16-21. Kidambi Srikanth went down to Kento Momota of Japan 21-10, 21-13.