Indian Open: Saina Nehwal crashes out in controversial circumstances

Title favourite and world number two Saina Nehwal today suffered a shock defeat at the hands of unseeded Yui Hashimoto of Japan in controversial circumstances to crash out of the Yonex Sunrise India Open Super Series in New Delhi.

An error-prone Saina, seeded top in the tournament, lost her women's singles second round match 21-13, 12-21, 20-22 in a contest that lasted one hour and two minutes.

The match was, however, marred by a contentious line call at the fag end of the crucial deciding game when Saina was leading 20-17 and about to wrap up the tie in her favour.

The line call went against Saina and it was apparent from her body language that she felt upset by the decision.

Saina Nehwal said a wrong line-call in the third game made her lose focus and squander three matchpoints to lose the contest. File Pic

The Japanese then pounced on the chance to reel off five straight points to win the match.

It was a sort of repeating history as Saina, then world number five, had bowed out of the same tournament last year in round two against Korea's Youn Joo Bae.

The home crowd that turned up to cheer Saina were on their feet as the opening game turned out to be a cake-walk for the London Olympic bronze medallist Indian and her opponent got points mainly due to unforced errors from her.

Despite hitting the net on a number of occasions, Saina cruised past the Japanese in the opening game by a big margin of 21-13.

However, to the dismay of home supporters, the scenario completely changed in the second game. The Japanese, who was hardly a match for Saina in the opening game, started dictating terms.

The two opponents were at par till 5-5 before the Japanese took full advantage of Saina's unforced errors.

Hashimoto opened up a 11-6 lead and, although Saina won a few points, the Japanese girl ran away with the second game 21-12 to take the match to the decider.u00a0