Indian Open: Defending champion Saina Nehwal knocked out in 34 minutes

In a shocking turn of events, defending champion Saina Nehwal has been knocked out of the BWF India open. The former world number one player was defeated in nine straight games as she was no match for shuttler Malvika Bansod. Nehwal's fellow Indian shutter took only 34 minutes to get the better of the 2021 London Olympics Bronze medalist with a scoreline of 21-17, 21-9.

Advertisment

In the meanwhile, PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy Roy have gone on to advance to the next rounds as they ended up beating their respective opponents. As for Nehwal, she did show resistance early on and managed to match Malvika's intensity as well. However, she still lost the first game 21-17 in a close contest.

Things then got bizarre for the 31-year-old as she was well beaten in the second game by 21-9. It took just over half an hour to wrap up the tie. Earlier, Saina got an easy game by Czech Republic's Tereza Svabikova, with the score reading 22-20, 1-0 in Saina's favour on Wednesday. However, the same wasn't to be followed this time around.

Malvika will now face Aakarshi Kashyap in the quarter-finals. In what turned out to be an absolute thriller, she got the better of Keyura Mopatin in a three-game thriller with a score of 15-21, 21-19, 21-8. The draw now contains four Indian players and India will have a good chance of retaining the crown, in the women's department at least.

Sindhu, however, dominated Ira Sharma 21-10, 21-10. This will now see her go another step closer to winning the championship as well. It is to be noted that the COVID-19 pandemic did impact the tournament, and several players had to miss out on playing the India open due to it.

Several players including Kidambi Srikanth, doubles player Ashwini Ponnappa, Ritika Rahul Thakar, Treesa Jolly, Simran Aman Singh and Khushi Gupta, all tested positive for COVID-19. Thus, this invariably led to several walkovers in the competition.