Saina, Kashyap, Jayaram lose in Hong Kong Open

New Delhi: Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, P Kashyap and Ajay Jayaram on Thursday crashed out in the second round of the Hong Kong Super Series after suffering contrasting defeats to sum up a disappointing day for India.

While Olympic bronze-medallist Saina suffered a 19-21 15-21 defeat to former world number one Wang Lin in a women`s singles match, Ajay went down to world number one Lee Chong Wei 18-21 19-21. Kashyap had to concede his match midway through the first game against Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto in the men`s singles competition due to pain in his abdomen. World number three Saina was in for a shock as she failed to match 2010 world champion Wang with her smashes during her 37-minute duel at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon. Saina, who returned to the court after skipping the China Masters last week because of a knee problem, was not in her elements as she had just five smash winners against 10 by the Chinese. Wang, who holds a 3-2 record against Saina, brought the Indian close to the net and then used her smashes to good affect. In the first game, Wang surged to a 4-1 lead but Saina clawed back at 6-6 and held the lead for 10 more points, before the Chinese surpassed her at the last moment. In the second game, Wang didn`t give Saina any chance as she raced to 6-1 first and then held fort, leaving the Indian to do the catch up job. Among other Indians, Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradnya Gadre suffered a 17-21 18-21 defeat to Thailand`s Duanganong Aroonkesorn and Kunchala Voravichitchaikul in the women`s doubles competition. In mixed doubles, top seeded Chinese pair of Chen Xu and Jin Ma ended the journey of India`s Pranaav Chopra and Siki Reddy with a 21-16 21-10 victory. Pranaav also had to taste defeat in the men`s doubles event when he and partner Akshay Dewalkar went down fighting 21-23 21-19 6-21 to the second seeded Chinese pair of Yun Cai and Haifeng FU. PTI