Saina stunned in quarters of All England Championships
March 12th, 2011 - 6:32 pm ICT by IANSBirmingham, March 12 (IANS) India’s Saina Nehwal suffered a shock defeat against lower-ranked Japanese Eriko Hirose 11-21, 20-22 and bowed out of the All England Badminton Championships here.
With Saina’s fall Friday at the National Indoor Arena, the Indian challenge ended in the prestigious event.
The World No.5 shuttler had defeated Hirose, ranked 17th, in the Indonesian Super Series semi-final last June but the Japanese was unstoppable here and she raced to a comfortable 15-5 lead in the first game.
The second game saw neck-and-neck fight between the two but Hirose won the crucial points to seal a place in the semi-finals.
Saina reached the semi-finals last year and was expected to make it to the finals this time after the withdrawal of World No.2 Yihan Wang, who was in the same half of the draw.
- Saina in final of Swiss Open Grand Prix - Mar 19, 2011
- Lee Chong Wei, Yihan Wang win singles title at Malaysia Open - Jan 15, 2012
- Saina, Jwala-Diju in world badminton quarters - Aug 26, 2010
- Saina fights her way into Malaysian Open semis - Jan 13, 2012
- Saina bows out of Japan Open semis - Sep 24, 2011
- Saina goes down to Yihan Wang in Malaysia Open semis - Jan 14, 2012
- Saina crashes out of All-England Championship - Mar 09, 2012
- Saina in semi-finals of Indonesian Open Super series - Jun 25, 2010
- Saina loses to Jiang Yanjiao in Korea Open quarters - Jan 06, 2012
- Saina in quarters of Swiss Open (Lead, superseding previous story) - Mar 18, 2011
- Saina beats world champion Lu Lan to make Singapore Open final - Jun 19, 2010
- Saina captures first title of the year at Swiss Open (Lead) - Mar 20, 2011
- Super Saina wins three badminton titles in three weeks (Lead) - Jun 27, 2010
- Saina to take on Chinese dominance at World Badminton - Aug 24, 2010
- Saina Nehwal in quarters of All England - Mar 11, 2011
Tags: all england badminton championships, england badminton, england championships, eriko hirose, first game, India, indian challenge, national indoor arena, prestigious event, quarters, saina nehwal, second game, semi finals, shock defeat