London, Aug 12: Saina Nehwal's quarterfinal jinx in the World Badminton Championship continued as the ace Indian shuttler suffered a straight-game defeat to world number three Wang Xin to crash out of the women's singles of the prestigious event here today.
World number six Saina, who reached the quarterfinals in the last two editions too, had to be contend with yet another last-eight finish as she lost 15-21 10-21 in a one-sided 30-minute match here.
The 21-year-old Indian was not in her elements today as she struggled with her strokes and also committed too many unforced errors to hand over the match to the former world number one Chinese at the Wembley arena.
Playing with the breeze in the first game, Saina kept her shuttle up during her serves and took a 4-2 lead, but Xin caught the Indian at the cross court to draw parity before breaking off at 9-9.
Saina faltered with her baseline strokes and also failed to negotiate the sharp shots of the Chinese as Xin registered five straight points to move to 14-9, before holding her fort to grab the first game.
The second game started off with long rallies but Xin soon started attacking as Saina panicked and ended up giving a 4-10 lead to the Chinese.
Even though coach Pullela Gopichand tried to motivate Saina, the gulf could not be bridged as Xin controlled the game while anticipating the shots from the Indian.
Two unforced errors from Xin helped Saina to gain a couple of odd points but with the Indian struggling with her strokes and succumbing to error in judgement, she allowed Xin to seal the issue rather comfortably in the end.
Saina had lost to Xin thrice before but defeated the Chinese in the Sudirman Cup in May.
Latest India News
