Saina knocked out of Badminton World C'ship

<p>Nanjing [China], August 3 (ANI): Indian shutller Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Badminton World Championship after going down against her Spanish opponent Carolina Marin in the quarter-final clash of the women's singles event here on Friday.</p><p>The former world number one slumped to 6-21, 11-21 straight set defeat in the match that lasted 31 minutes.</p><p>The tenth-seeded Indian, who was unstoppable in her pre-quarters clash against Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, failed to emulate the same against the world number eight Spaniard.</p><p>Taking the opening serve, the 28-year-old started with a brilliant rally but her defensive approach resulted in Marin taking the initial lead.</p><p>The Spanish shuttler kept on attacking and nothing seemed to be working for the world number ten Indian as Marin took the healthy lead of nine points.</p><p>By the mid-interval, the scoreline read 11-2 in the favour of Marin. Continuing to rise on the points table, Marin won the first game 21-6 with a stunning smash.</p><p>The second game started on a promising note for the Indian shutller but a couple of unforced errors from her side gave Marin the lead of five points.</p><p>Trailing by 8-11 in the game, Saina continued to send the shuttle in illegal areas which led to a loss of three points in a row for the Indian shuttler.</p><p>The Spaniard continued to dominate her opponent giving Nehwal no room for making a comeback. Marin completely outclassed the Indian player to book herself a berth in the semi-final of the tournament.</p><p>Marin will now face He BingJiao of China in the semi-final which is slated to be held on August 3.</p><p>Meanwhile, in the mixed doubles event, Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also crashed out of the tournament after losing to top-seeded Zheng Siwei and Huang Yagiong from China 17-21, 10-21 in their quarter-final match.</p><p>Later today, ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu will take on Japanese shuttler Nozomi Okuhara to book herself a spot in the semi-final of the tournament. (ANI)</p><br/><center><em><p>This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI</p></em></center>

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