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Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth crash out of All England

Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth crash out of All England

TIL Desk Sports/ Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the All England Championship to bring an end to the Indian challenge, in Birmingham, on Friday. While Saina couldn’t find answers to the deceptive strokeplay of her nemesis Tai Tzu-Ying, suffering a 15-21, 19-21 loss to the World No 1 Taiwanese in the quarter-finals, former No 1 Srikanth went down 12-21, 16-21 to the current men’s World no 1 Kento Momota later in the day.

Saina trails 5-15 in head-to-head career record with Tzu-Ying and it was her 13th straight defeat against the Taiwanese, who has not lost to the Indian since 2015. “I had my chances but I got tied up in the last two points,” said the 28-year-old from Hyderabad, a 2015 finalist. Srikanth, who had a title-less run last season after the high of winning four tournaments in an incredible 2017, suffered his sixth straight loss to the Japanese.

In the first game, Momota broke off from 9-9 to grab 10 game points. Srikanth saved two before a cross court return sealed it for the Japanese. In the second game, Momota surged ahead from 3-3 to grab a 11-4 at the break and grabbed eight match points. The Indian saved four match points before losing the match.

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