Saina Nehwal loses to Akane Yamaguchi again, crashes out of French Open Super Series

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal on Thursday suffered yet another defeat at the hands of Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi to crash out of the 2017 French Open Super Series in Paris.

The second round match lasted 39 minutes as the Indian shuttler suffered an agonising 21-19, 23-21 defeat. Last week, Japanese thrashed the Indian 10-21, 13-21 in straight games.

After a poor start, which eventually cost her the first game, Nehwal tried to pose a fightback against a sturdy opponent but failed to make a match out it.

This was their fourth meeting, and now the Japanese girl has taken a 3-1 lead over the Indian.

Earlier today, Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy also lost their doubles match to top seeds Misaki Matsutomo and

Ayaka Takahashi of Japan in straight games, 21-16 21-14.

Later in the night, French Open men's singles champions Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy and women's second seed PV Sindhu till play their respective singles matches.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will feature in mixed doubles.