New Delhi, Jan 19: India's challenge at the India Open ended on Thursday when London Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal lost in straight games to China's Chen Yu Fei in the pre-quarters.
All of the big names of Indian badminton, including PV Sindhu, men's singles defending champion Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy lost out to inferior-ranked opponents; barring Kidambi Srikanth, who lost to Viktor Axelsen in the opening round.
Saina was no match for her higher-ranked rival from the word go as the Chinese Olympic champion was precise with her side court returns. The World No. 31 Indian only made her rival's job easier by making many net errors as Yu Fei took the first game 21-9.
The story changed a little in the second game as Yu Fei took the second game 2-12 to close the game in a jiffy and reach the quarter-finals.
Prior to Saina's loss, Sen lost on the same court (2) to World No. 20 Rasmus Gemke 21-16, 15-21, 18-21 in the men's single pre-quarters.
Earlier in the afternoon, the title favourite men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty handed a walkover against China's Liu Yu Chen and Yi Xuan Ou as Satwik suffered a groin injury. Another men's doubles duo of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud lost in straight games to China's Lian Wei Keng and Wang Chang 21-14, 21-10.
Teen women's doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayathri Gopichand also lost in the second round to the Chinese pair of Zhang Su Xian and Yu Zheng 21-9, 21-16.