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That ends Saina Nehwal's campaign at the Macau Open. It is indeed disappointing for her fans but remember, she is a fighter. She has just come back from a knee surgery and needs some time to get back to to the top echelons of the sport where she belongs!
Saina is getting better with each match. Next year, she is definitely going to be back to her best!
FULL SCORE: 21-12, 21-17 win for Zhang Yiman
With an angular drop directed at Saina's feet, the Chinese completes the victory!
Error from Yiman and now she is 20-17
The forehand crosscourt does the damage again! Yiman now up 20-16
More aggression from Nehwal who has closed in on 16-19
Error from Yiman and Saina now trails 14-19
Saina looking fatigued here and the Chinese is more confident now. Yiman up 19-13
What a backhand from Yiman who now goes up 18-12
Yiman continues to trouble Saina with her angular forehand drop. Yiman now up 17-12
Nehwal gets one point back for 12-14
Saina not able to control her errors here. She trails 11-14
Error from Saina and Yiman goes up 13-11
Yiman misses the line and Saina now back in it, 11-11
Her angular shots are working fine as Saina is unable to quickly bend sideways and get to them. Yiman now up 11-9 at the break.
Huge scream from the Chinese who goes up 10-9
Rallies are getting longer now and the two are locked at 9-9
Yiman making Saina bend a lot and that is obviously a tactic that is working in favour of the Chinese. Yiman now up 9-8
She has levelled it at 7-7
A net error from Saina and Yiman now trails 6-7
Errror from Yiman and Saina is up 7-5
The Chinese now trails by 1 point at 5-6
A great angular shot and Yiman is now 4-6
Yiman attacking with down-the-line shots and she is now 3-6
Finally the Chinese takes a point for 1-6
This is one-sided now! Saina is up 6-0
More spunk from Saina and some great returns as well. She is now 4-0
Nehwal now up 3-0
She really needs to build a quick lead here and keep her errors at bay.
GAME 2
Saina looking to assert herself and is now up 2-0
The Chinese makes no mistake in converting her first game point for 21-12.
Saina trying her best to move around the court but cannot finish the point the way she would have liked. She is now down 12-20.
The Indian fumbles at the net and the Chinese is up 18-11
It is a 6-point gap now with the Chinese leading 17-11
Saina cannot contain her errors and she is now trailing 11-16
Varying the height of the shuttle, Saina gets a couple of points for 10-14
The Chinese has now gone up 13-8 after the break.
Saina remained close to Yiman's heels at 8-9 but the youngster has once more inched ahead to 11-8 at half-time.
The fighter is Saina has resurfaced and she is now trailing by one point at 7-8
The Chinese is now up by three points at 8-5
Yiman once more gets to stretch her lead to 7-5 now
The aggressive Yiman takes a couple of points for 6-4
She has levelled it to 4-4
But the Chinese extends her lead to 4-2
Saina is fighting back now and has closed the gap to 2-3
And the match has started. Yiman has jumped out to a 3-1 lead.
Good morning and welcome to the Sportskeeda Liveblog of the Macau Open Quarter-finals. Even though Saina Nehwal is the top seed, she hasn't had it easy so far. She won her first two matches in three games and her performances have been error-riddled.
But it is understandable as the former World No. 1 has returned to the circuit after a three-month hiatus following her knee surgery. She will indeed need more matches to get back the feel of high-level competition.
Her quarter-final opponent is a 19-year-old Chinese, who is ranked 226th. There is surely a big gulf in their rankings and experience. Having said that, the Chinese can give Saina a tough time.
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But the Indian campaign does not end with Saina's loss. B Sai Praneeth is still alive in the men's singles draw and will be playing his quarter-final match against World No. 125 Zhao Jun Peng of China. It will be around 2.30pm IST today.
Do join us then for the live coverage. Till then, au revoir!