Shenzhen: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal’s hope of winning the BWF World Super Series Finals suffered a huge dent after she lost her second consecutive women’s singles Group B match here today.
This loss now virtually ended her chances of making it to the last four of the event. She had earlier lost her first match against Swiss Tim Baun on Wednesday.
The London Olympics bronze medallist taking on Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand lost the match in straight sets. She lost 13- 21.13,16-21 in a match that lasted for just over half an hour at the China Resources Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre.
World number three Saina displayed sloppiness and saw the Thai open up a 14-5 lead but as the game progressed, she found her rhythm and did good to cut the gap to 14-12. But at 15-13, some dominating smashes by World number nine Ratnachok won her six consecutive points on the trot.
In the second game, it was a close till 16-16, but superior game-play sawn Ratnachok seal of the remaining five points in no time.
The fourth seeded Indian will now take on World No.4 Juliane Schenk of Germany in the next match.
However, Saina's qualification chances of qualifying to the semis have taken a hit and she would need to win by a big margin and rely on the results of other matches in her group.
By Indian Sports News Network