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Hong Kong Open: Saina Nehwal, Sameer Verma crash out

Saina lost 13-21 20-22 in straight games to China's Cai Yan Yan, while Sameer went down fighting 11-21 21-13 8-21 to Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei.

Saina lost 13-21 20-22 in straight games

Hong Kong, November 13: India's Saina Nehwal and Sameer Verma crashed out of the Hong Kong Open Super 500 after suffering contrasting defeats in the opening round in Hong Kong on Wednesday (November 13).

Eighth seed Saina, who claimed the Indonesia Masters in January this year, suffered her fifth first-round loss in the last six tournaments, after losing in straight games 13-21 20-22 to familiar foe in China's Cai Yan Yan.

This was her for the second successive defeat to the Chinese as she had lost to Cai at China Open last week.

Saina lacked the wherewithal to put up a fight against Cai in the opening game and fell behind from the very start. She couldn''t catch up with the Chinese, who moved to a comfortable 11-4 lead at the break and kept surging ahead to win the first game.

In the second game, Saina was 3-0 up initially but Cai reeled off seven straight points at 2-4 to jump to a 9-4 advantage. The Indian narrowed the gap but Cai was ahead 11-9 at the breather.

After the interval, the Chinese jumped to a 17-11 advantage. However, Saina managed to fight back and grab a game point at 20-19 but the Chinese once again managed to nose ahead.

Later on Wednesday (November 13), world no.16 Sameer went down fighting to Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei 11-21 21-13 8-21 in the opening round match, which lasted close to an hour. And that defeat was his third successive one in the opening round.

Sameer managed to take one game away from the world no.26 Wang after meekly surrendering the opening game. Wang was 7-4 up and then surged to 15-5 in a jiffy to eventually close the opening game.

In the second game, Wang led 3-0 early on but this time Sameer put up a fierce fight to open up a slender 11-10 lead, which he capitalised to roar back into the contest.

However, Sameer was completely blown away by Wang in the decider. The Taiwanese shuttler zoomed to an 8-0 lead and then grabbed a 15-2 advantage, a gap which the Indian failed to bridge in the end.

Both Saina and Sameer, will now look to bounce back soon as they are both scheduled to play in the Gwangju Korea Masters Super 300 tournament in seven days time.

(With inputs from PTI)

Story first published: Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 10:17 [IST]
Other articles published on Nov 13, 2019