Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 10: Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth suffered first-round exits from the season-opening Malaysia Open on Tuesday, continuing their miserable season.
Saina, a two-time Commonwealth Games champion who battled numerous injuries and lost her form in 2022, lost 12-21 21-17 12-21 to Han Yue of China in the $1,250,000 Super 1000 competition. Saina, whose ranking has dropped to 30, battled back after dropping the first game in a women’s singles first-round match to force a decider.
The bronze medalist from the 2012 Olympics, however, fell behind as Han opened up a huge advantage to easily win the match.
The capitulation of former world number one Srikanth was more subdued. The unseeded Kenta Nishimoto of Japan defeated the world championship silver medalist—who has also been off lately—19-21 14-21 in 42 minutes. The 13th-ranked Srikanth gave the first game his all, but Nishimoto eventually gained the upper hand.
In the second game, the two shuttlers were deadlocked at 12-12, but the Japanese then easily won the match.
Akarshi Kashyap’s career was over after losing her opening match in the women’s singles division to Wen Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei 10-21 8-21.
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Later on in the day, the women’s doubles team of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will compete against Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam from Hong Kong, while the men’s doubles team of Krishna Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Panjala will begin their season against South Korean duo Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae.
