Saina Nehwal crashes out of World Badminton championship

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Glasgow, August 26: India's Saina Nehwal crashed out of the World Badminton championship on Saturday (August 26). Saina lost to seventh Japanese Nozomi Okuhara 21-12, 17-21, 10-21 in the semifinals.

Saina won the first set with consummate ease but could not sustain the momentum in the two subsequent sets. Now, she settles for a bronze.

In fact, Saina played gallantly to match her opponent, four years younger to her, in the second set till 15-15. But there after Okuhara shifted the gears and her pace was too much for Saina, who is returning from a long injury lay-off.

In the third set, Saina tried to stay on with her rival initially reaching 3-3 but failed to keep the rhythm and began to commit errors.

The Japanese, a bundle of energy even in the decider, too began to play at a whole different level and kept widening the gap, eventually wrapping the third set and match with ease.

Now, India's lone hope in the tournament is PV Sindhu, who will be taking on China's Chen Yufei in the second semifinals.