Danish Kjaersfeldt stuns Saina in Thailand Masters

India's campaign at the BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament ends after Srikanth, Prannoy and Verma were knocked out earlier in the day.

Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal suffered a second consecutive opening round defeat when she went down to Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in the Thailand Masters badminton tournament in Bangkok on Wednesday.

With this, India’s campaign at the BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament has ended.

Fifth seed Saina lost to unseeded Kjaersfeldt 13-21, 21-17, 15-21 in a hard fought 47-minute contest.

World No 18 Saina had a 4-0 head-to-head record against the number 29 before Wednesday's match.

Saina had also lost in the opening round of the Indonesia Masters last week after entering the quarter-finals in the Malaysia Masters a week prior (January 7-12).

In the men's singles, the trio of Kidambi Srikanth, Sameer Verma and H S Prannoy, too, faltered in the first round.

Indian shuttlers, thus continued their poor run after making early exits in the Malaysia and Indonesia Masters earlier this month.

Verma lost to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia 16-21, 15-21 in a 39-minute men's singles match.

It was a similar script for the fifth seeded Srikanth, who suffered his third consecutive first-round exit this season, going down to Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia 21-12, 14-21, 12-21, in a match that lasted 48 minutes.

Another disappointment for India, Prannoy lost 17-21, 22-20, 19-21 to Malaysia's Liew Daren.