India had a bad start to its women's singles campaign at the Korea Open with P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal crashing out in the first round on Wednesday.
First it was Sindhu to make an exit after she lost her first round match to USA's Beiwen Zhang 21-7, 22-24, 15-21 and next was Saina when she was forced to pull out retired hurt in the third game against Kim Ga Eun of Korea.
Saina was trailing 21-19, 18-21 and 1-8 against South Korea’s Kim Ga Eun when she was forced to retire. Saina’s husband and personal coach Kashyap said she retired because of gastroenteritis problem.
“It seems she had a relapse of the gastroenteritis that bothered her early in the year. She was feeling dizzy and vomited yesterday. In fact, she went to the stadium straight from the hospital today,” he said.
“Still she could have won but when it went to three games, she didn’t have anything left in her tank. We need to check with the doctor when we go back. It has been a difficult year for her.”
Meanwhile, it was Sindhu's second early exit from a tournament after she won the World Championships gold last month. At the China Open last week she was knocked out by Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in the second round.
Against Zhang, she made a tremendous start by clinching the first game 21-7, then conceded the hard-fought second 22-24. However, in the decider, Zhang held her nerves to walk away with the game and the match.
Earlier, B. Sai Praneeth retired midway through the second game of his first-round match, sending Anders Antonsen of Denmark through to the round of 16.
The 27-year-old had lost the first game 9-21 and was trailing 7-11 in the second when he chose to retire because of injury.
(with inputs from PTI)
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