Saina knocked out of Badminton World C'ship

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.

The former world number one slumped to 6-21, 11-21 straight set defeat in the match that lasted 31 minutes.

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.

Taking the opening serve, the 28-year-old started with a brilliant rally but her defensive approach resulted in Marin taking the initial lead.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Marin will now face He BingJiao of China in the semi-final which is slated to be held on August 3.
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.

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