The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : India makes an early exit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 05, 2006

Sport

Sport - Badminton

India makes an early exit

Kuala Lumpur: Saina Nehwal lost a close match as India made an early exit from the mixed team event of the Asian junior badminton championship after fourth seeded Indonesia thrashed it 3-0 here on Tuesday.

Saina, after winning the first game against Pia Zebadiah Bernadet, ran out of steam in the second and third games and lost the match 19-21, 21-16, 21-18.

Earlier in the boys' singles, Jishnu Sanyal went down fighting to Bandar Sigit Pamungkas 16-21, 21-16, 19-21.

No match

Trailing 0-2, Indian duo of Jishnu and Akshay Dewalker proved no match for the Indonesian pair of Fernando Kurniawan and Subakti who won 21-13, 21-16 to wrap up the best-of-five match.

In girls' singles, which begins on Wednesday, Saina is a strong contender for the title and she has been seeded second behind World No. 39 Jang Soo Young of South Korea.

The Hyderabadi teenager, who became the first Indian woman to win a four-star event at the Philippines Open, is now ranked 42 in the World.

In other mixed team event matches, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and China won their matches against Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan, Vietnam and Singapore respectively with identical 3-0 margins, while North Korea beat Kazakhstan 3-1. — UNI

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