Saina, Sindhu crash out of Australia Open quarters

India's campaign in the women's singles category at the $750,000 Australia Open Superseries ended after London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal went down to sixth-seeded Sun Yu of China in a quarter-finals match here on Friday.

The Chinese shuttler beat Saina 21-17, 10-21, 21-17 in a match that lasted for an hour and 19 minutes.

Earlier, Saina's compatriot P.V. Sindhu also lost her quarter-finals match to World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

Sun Yu dominated the opening game taking a 8-4 lead before extending it further to 11-9 at the break. Saina, however, made a strong comeback after the break and went ahead 15-13 before Sun Yu gained eight straight points to pocket the game.

In the second game, Saina surged ahead taking six straight points to lead 7-3 and went to the break at 11-4. Coming back, the Hyderabadi never allowed the Chinese to settle and extended her lead to 18-10 and easily winning it 21-10.

The decider witnessed fierce battle between the two shuttlers splitting at 4-4 and then going neck and neck till 9-9 before Saina took the lead at 11-9.

Post the break, Sun Yu took three points in a row to make it 12-12 and then went ahead with six straight points to make it 19-15. She kept her nerves and didn't allow the Indian free her arms to run away with the match 21-17.

Sun Yu will now take on Nozomi Okuhara, who beat fellow Japanese Sayaka Takahashi in another quarter-final tie.

--IANS

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