World No 15 Saina Nehwal’s Indonesia Open Superseries campaign came to an early end as she was knocked out in the second round by Thailand’s Nichaon Jindapol, ranked one rung above her. Jindapol won the match 21-15, 6-21, 21-16 in one hour and three minutes. Jindapol will take on the winner of the match between top seed Tai Tzu Ying and Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.
Jindapol started the match well, taking a 11-5 lead in the first game going into the interval. Nehwal shook off some inertia to level the scores 14-all, before some uncharacteristic errors from the Indian allowed the Thai to take the game 21-15.
Nehwal was a transformed player in the second game, taking an 8-4 lead before winning eight points on the trot to put the game out of reach from Jindapol. Nehwal won the game 21-6 to force the decider. Both players went neck and neck in the third, at one point exchanging an incredible 49-shot rally that was won by Jindapol. Winning that point seemed to provide the Thai with the momentum to go on and take the game.
Nehwal will now move on to Australia for another Superseries tournament before taking a break. She is still not back to her best after returning from a knee surgery late last year. Last week, she reached the semi-finals of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold before losing to Busanan Ongbumrungpan in straight games. The 27-year-old Indian started the Indonesia Open with a three-game win over former world No 1 Ratchanok Intanon, but wasn’t able to get over the line in the second round.
Earlier in the day, world No 25 HS Prannoy caused an upset in the men’s singles draw by knocking out top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in straight games in the second round. Prannoy needed 40 minutes to dispatch the former champion 21-10, 21-18. The 24-year-old Indian will next take on the winner of the match between eighth seed Chen Long and Jonatan Christie in the quarter-finals.
India’s Kidambi Srikanth also got through to the quarter-finals by beating world No 9 Jan Jorgensen, but it wasn’t a straightforward win. Srikanth needed three games to get over his opponent.