Sainas title defence ends

Two-time defending champion Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after being stunned by Shixian Wang of China in the womens singles semifinal. Top seed Saina lost 11-21 21-10 9-21 to fourth-seeded Chinese.

Saina failed to put up any challenge in the first game as the world no. 7 Chinese raced to an 8-0 lead. And from there on,Saina only played the catch up game and eventually lost 11-21. In the second game too,Saina was lagging 3-6 but the world no. 2 clawed back. After a hard fight till 7-7,she managed to surge ahead and then held on to her game to bounce back. After opening up a lead of 13-10,Saina notched eight straight points to take the game.

But in the decider,the Indian started to make unforced errors. Having opened up a 5-0 lead,the Chinese comfortably sealed the match. She needed just one match point to cap it off. Shixians deft touches at the net proved to be the difference between the two shuttlers.