Incheon: India's Asian Games badminton campaign ended on a dismal note with 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth being knocked out of the singles event at the Gyeyang Gymnasium here Friday.
The only saving grace was the bronze medal won Sunday in the women's team event, which was India's first from the sport since the 1986 Seoul Games.
Saina lost her women's singles quarterfinal, Kashyap and Srikanth went out of the men's singles pre-quarters. Doubles shuttlers also failed to impress as Manu Attri and N. Sikki Reddy were knocked out of the mixed Round of 16 event while Attri, partnering B. Sumeeth Reddy, also lost his men's doubles quarter-final.
Sixth seed Saina had to once again suffer a defeat at the hands of old rival Yihan Wang of China as the second seed marched into the semis with a 18-21, 21-9, 21-7 victory in exactly an hour.
Out of their previous nine meetings, the former World Champion had won eight times while the only time the result went in favour of Saina was when Yihan retired in 2012 in Denmark Open, that was won by the Indian. Saina looked in her prime in the first game, taking it in 25 minutes. This was the first time since 2011 that the Hyderabadi took a game against the former World No.1.
However in the second game, the Olympic silver medallist totally turned the tables on Saina as she romped home to level the contest in only 18 minutes. The procession continued as the World No.3 Chinese took a minute less in the decider to close the encounter on her first matchpoint with a precise cross court smash.
Earlier, Kashyap was knocked out when he lost his men's singles pre-quarterfinal to World No.1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia. It was a tough outing for the reigning Commonwealth Games champion who has never won a game, let alone a match, against the top seeded Malaysian in four previous meetings. Chong Wei needed only 34 minutes to move past the Hyderabadi, winning 21-12, 21-11.
Srikanth also went out when he lost 21-19, 11-21, 18-21 to local World No.7 Son Wan Ho in an hour and seven minutes. Though the World No.22 Indian had beaten the fifth seeded Son in their first two meetings, the South Korean had defeated the Indian on the last occasion they played at the Thomas Cup in New Delhi in May.
Attri and Sikki also lost their mixed doubles encounter to Singaporean combine Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo. The sixth seeds won the contest 21-18, 21-23, 21-15 in 49 minutes.
Going out as India's last medal hopes from the discipline, Reddy and Attri lost to Indonesian second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 12-21, 19-21 in 32 minutes.
