India's campaign came to a premature halt in the All-England Badminton Championship when ace shuttler Saina Nehwal was thrashed by Chinese Shixian Wang in the quarter-finals of the women's singles in Birmingham on Friday.
Seventh seeded Saina lost in straight games 17-21, 10-21, against the fourth seed, in a match that lasted 43 minutes.
Wang will next take on compatriot and second seed Yihan Wang, who beat Korea's Yeon Ju Bae 21-8, 21-13 in the other quarter-final.
Saina's trademark smashes were nowhere to be seen and, in fact, the Indian, a semifinalist in the previous edition of the event, failed to pull off even one of them in either of the two games.
The Olympic bronze-medallist, who entered the tournament claiming that she was back to her best after clinching the Syed Modi Indian Open, fought for a while in the opening game but collapsed completely in the second.
Saina was the sole Indian left in the championships as World No. 10 P V Sindhu found the going tough on debut and lost to Sun Yu of China in the first round.
Photograph: Beawiharta/Reuters
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