After the high of the India Open where the India No. 1 PV Sindhu went on to win the title, India's campaign got off to a most disappointing start at the $600, 000 Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open Superseries Premier as both Sindhu and Saina Nehwal bowed out in the first round on Wednesday. Both the shuttle queens lost in the same fashion after squandering a one-game lead each.
It was first Nehwal, who made a bright start against the World No. 2 and fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi only to crash to a 21-19, 13-21, 15-21 loss in 56 minutes. The sixth-seeded Sindhu too followed her soon after that with a 21-18, 19-21, 17-21 defeat to the reigning world junior champion Chen Yufei of China in 1 hour 8 minutes.
Ajay Jayaram the only Indian winner so far
Ajay Jayaram is the only Indian who managed to progress to the second round. The World No. 19 did not put a foot wrong and breezed past the 23rd ranked Qiao Bin, 21-11, 21-8 in just 31 minutes.
The men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy too crumbled to a first round defeat in a similar way as Saina and Sindhu did. The Indian duo took the first game 21-18 against the 35th ranked Chinese Taipei combine of Liao Kuan Hao and Lu Chia Pin but could not continue the momentum as they went down in the end, 21-18, 18-21, 17-21 in 48 minutes.
Later in the day, Sai Praneeth has a tough first round against the seventh seed and two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan. In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy too will be in action against the Danish duo of Kim Astrup and Line Kjaersfeldt.
Sindhu was two points away from the win
Sindhu made the quarter-finals of this tournament last year and a better finish this year would have put her closer to the World No. 1 ranking for she is all set to climb to the No. 2 ranking on Thursday, April 6. But she could not capitalise on it despite being two points away from the win at 21-18, 19-19. As a determined Yufei staged a comeback, the lack of sharpness in Sindhu’s game became more and more evident.
Tiredness could have played a role as this was her sixth match in eight days. The 21-year-old did manage to reduce the deficit to 15-17 but that was the closest she could get to in the latter stages of the match before the Chinese wrapped it up.
Earlier, Saina was in control of her match against Yamaguchi till the interval in the second game at which point she was leading 11-8 after taking the first game 21-19. It all changed on resumption as Saina could get a further two points only in the remainder of that game.
In the decider, she opened up a 2-0 lead only to see the Japanese coming back for 2-2. After trailing for much of the game, Saina once again fought back to level matters at 12-12 but a dominant Yamaguchi ran away from there to the finish line.
