Saina Nehwal went down fighting to South Korea's Se Young An as she lost the women's singles quarterfinal 20-22, 23-21 on Friday in the French Open 2019 in Paris.
Thailand Open champions Rankireddy Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty stormed into the men's doubles semifinals with a straight-game 21-13, 22-20 victory over Denmark pair Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen.
This was the second straight victory over Indian shuttlers for 17-year old Se Young An after she ousted P.V. Sindhu in the second round of the Denmark Ope n earlier this month.
Se Young started the match strongly powering to a 7-2 lead in the first game, but Saina won three straight points to make it 8-9.
World no. 16 Se Young led for the majority of the first game until Saina pulled level at 15-15. Saina fought after Se Young won three consecutive points and looked like winning the game at 20-19. But the South Korean won three points in a row to seal the game 22-20.
READ | French Open: Saina Nehwal through to second round
Both the players upped the intensity in the second game as they went from being level at 5-5 to 9-9. Se Young won consecutive points to open up a five-point lead at 11-16. However, a resilient Saina won four points back-to-back to make it 18-18 and then levelled scores at 20-20, but was unable to stop Se Young from winning the second game and the match at 23-21.
In the men's doubles quarterfinals, Rankireddy Satwiksairaj and Chirag Shetty put on a dominant performance against Danish pair Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen. The Indians took a 11-6 lead and sealed the first game at 21-13 by winning four points in a row. The Danes came back stronger in the second game as they levelled scores at 10-10, 16-16 and at 19-19. However, the Indian pair won back-to-back points to seal the match at 22-20.
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