Can you believe India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out early in a tournament, again? She lost to Eriko Hirose of Japan in a hard-fought three-game battle 21-16 15-21 11-21 in the first round of women's singles match of Singapore Open.
Saina – the London Olympic bronze medalist dominated the first set; she was once up 13-4, before wrapping up the first set with 21-16.
The seventh seed – Saina, started the second game well as she took a 4-2 lead. But Hirose quickly got her act together to tie the game at 4-4. Since then, Saina seems to have lost her focus, and keep try to catch up with Hirose. Hirose finally surged ahead to 10-4 and never look back ever since.
In the third set, the Japanese got a quick start with 5-0 lead, and continued to maintain her superior control shuttlecock, which eventually seal it off comfortably in the end.
In other women's singles first round matches, Arundhati Pantawane fought hard in a just over an hour game against Japanese Shizuka Uchida before losing 21-16 11-21 15-21. Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China won an easy match against Tanvi Lad with a 21-6 21-11 win.
