India’s Saina Nehwal suffered a shocking first-round loss to World No 212 Wang Zhyi of China 16-21 23-21 4-21 in the women’s singles match which lasted one hour and seven minutes on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old Olympic Bronze medalist and world number nine trailed 0-4 in the first game and was unable to keep up with her opponent losing 16-21.
But she owned the second game for 23-21 and was stretched by her opponent in the same. The opposition was very weak from the Indian in the decider match as Wang won eight consecutive points to win it easily.
Earlier the same day Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy registered victory over New Zealand’s Joshua Feng and Jack Jiang 21-17 21-10.
It was indeed a disappointing day for the Indian shuttlers as Anura Prabhudesai also lost to World No 15 Li Xuerui 9-21 10-21 in the singles first round itself.
