Anup, Saina go down in quarterfinal ties

India’s campaign at the Aviva Singapore Super Series came to an end on Friday after both Saina Nehwal and Anup Sridhar lost their respective quarterfinals.

Sixth seed Saina went down 21-19, 19-21, 14-21 to China’s Wang Lin while qualifier Anup lost 11-21, 8-21 to Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana.

Anup, ranked 39th in the world, offered some resistance in the first game, keeping things level till the 12th point. Thereafter, he lost the plot and the Thai world number 19 opened up a four-point lead which he steadily improved.

World number seven Saina trailed 8-10 in the first game but staged a brilliant fightback that saw her forge ahead of world number four Lin 12-11.

Thereafter, she always stayed a step ahead of her higher ranked opponent.
But the third-seeded Lin ran away from 14-14 in the second game to surge ahead and wrap it up 21-19.

In the decider, Saina just fizzled out after going level till six-all. The Chinese opened up a three-point lead at 11-8 and for the rest of the game, Saina was made to play catch up without success, as it turned out.
The encounter lasted 59 minutes.