Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal suffered a shock defeat in the Singapore Super Series, losing to Indonesia's Lindaweni Fanetri in the women's singles quarter-finals, on Friday.
The world No 2 squandered a one-game lead and went down to the unseeded Indonesian 21-17, 13-21, 13-21 in 58 minutes at the Singapore indoor stadium.
Earlier this month, Saina had beaten Fanetri 17-21, 29-27, 13-21 in the first round of the Indonesian Super Series Premier in Jakarta.
The Indian, however, regained composure and pocketed three straight points to close the game.
The Indonesian started the second game on a bright note and opened up a 7-4 lead.
Riding on her smashes and delicate net play, she increased the lead to 19-10 before sealing the game and leveling the match scores.
Winning the second game gave her immense confidence of registering an upset victory over a higher-ranked opponent and she carried on the good form in the decider to open up a 12-3 lead over Saina with clear winners.
Hard as she tried, the Indian was not allowed any leeway for a recovery as Fanetri increased the lead to 19-9 before delivering the knock-out punch to avenge the defeat at the Jakarta event.
In other women's quarter-final matches Xuerui Li beat Sapsiree Taerattanachai 21-11, 21-19; Sun Yu beat Tzu-Ying Tai 21-17, 21-11; Yihan Wang beat Shixian Wang 21-15, 21-11.
Image: Lindaweni Fanetri
Photograph: Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters
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