[1]World number four Saina Nehwal was convincingly beaten by top Thai prospect Ratchanok Inthanon at the Sudirman Cup on Monday as India's charge faltered once more.
Nehwal, who is a huge star back home, got off to a rotten start and was trailing 8-1 and then 12-3, before losing the first game by a humbling 21-14 to her 16-year-old opponent.
The 21-year-old Nehwal was quicker out of the blocks in the second game, but she squandered an early lead and allowed the world-ranked 18 Ratchanok back in, the rising Thai star taking the game -- and with it the tie -- 22-20.
"Yesterday's game was quite tough and that made me really slow today," said Nehwal, who struggled to see off Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying on Sunday, eventually coming through an unconvincing 21-10, 12-21, 21-17.
"I was still confident I could pull through but I made too many errors today," added Nehwal.
The Indian said Ratchanok could eventually be a top player.
"She can become really good. She's troubling a lot of the Chinese players and doing really well against most of them. She's going to be good in the future."
India lost their opening match on Sunday 3-2 to Taiwan.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/sainac1jpgcropdisplayjpg-391