Badminton Asia C'ships: Saina, Prannoy bow out in semis

Ace Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy and Saina Nehwal crash out of the ongoing Badminton Asia Championships after going down in straight-games in their respective semi-final clashes here on Saturday.

Nehwal, who picked a gold medal in the recently-concluded 21st Commonwealth Games, suffered a 25-27, 19-21 defeat at the hands of World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in a hard-fought last-four match of the women's singles event that lasted 45 minutes.

With the result, Nehwal also slumped to her ninth consecutive defeat in a row against Tai Tzu Ying.

Prannoy, on the other hand, displayed some patches of brilliance against his Olympic champion Chen Long, but the Chinese shuttler and third seed eventually prevailed the Indian 21-16, 21-18 in a 52-minute match.

As a result, India's challenge at the tournament also folded with Prannoy and Nehwal settling for a bronze medal each.

Yesterday, Rio Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu suffered a 19-21, 10-21 defeat to seventh-seeded Sung Ji Hyun of Korea while Kidambi Srikanth lose to Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia 12-21, 15-21 to bow out of the tournament.

(ANI)