London Olympics Bronze medal winner quarterfinalist Saina Nehwal is out of the Orleans Masters Super 300. It was a straight-game and first-round loss to Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit then moment. Still, Mithun Manjunath, Priyanshu Rajawat, Aakarshi Kashyap, and Tanya Hemanth progressed to the alternate round. Returning to the court after missing many events, Nehwal went down 16- 21 14- 21 to the Turkish qualifier Yigit in 39 minutes.
Nehwal, who missed the All-England Crowns and has dropped to 32 in the BWF Rankings, was playing with a heavily strapped right knee. She looked inactive and was low in speed, off the blocks as she traced Yigit 4- 11. The Indians, still, fought back to narrow down the deficiency to 13- 15 but the gap was ultimately too important as Yigit took the first game. Nehwal was down again in the alternate game, running 6- 11 at themid-game interval, and ultimately lost the tie in straight games. In the other women’s mates’ matches, Tanya scrounge out a 21- 17 21- 18 palm over Leonice Huet of France, while Aakarshi fought from a game down to beat Natsuki Nidaira from Japan 8 21 21- 13 8- 21. Tanya got down fighting to Yvonne Li of Germany with 22- 20 13- 21 5- 21.
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In the men’s mates, Manjunath defeated Victor Svendsen of Denmark 24- 22 25- 23, while Rajawat beat compatriot Kiran George 21- 18 21- 13. Sameer Verma, on the other hand, squandered a game’s lead to lose 19- 21 21- 19 21- 17 against Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen.
Rajawat will be over against top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan, who prevailed over Taipei’s Chia Hao Lee 21- 18 21- 11.Manjunath will face Taipei’s Yu Jen, who was lucky to move further after fifth seed Rasmus Gemke retired in the alternative game after the first pocketing.
