Macau Open | Saina Nehwal bows out in quarterfinals

After losing all her opening round matches at the tournament, Saina Nehwal did well to reach the quarterfinals of the Macau Open Grand Prix badminton tournament, but ran out of steam against World No 226 Zhang Yiman of China on Thursday.

In a match that lasted just 35 minutes, Saina trailed the first game 2-4 against the unseeded Zhang but managed to cut the lead to 8-9. But the Chinese won five consecutive points to go 14-8 clear of the Indian and then went to win the game by a margin of 21-12.

In the second game, however, Saina started brightly going 5-0 up but Zhang clawed her way back into the match to take back the lead at 11-9. The teenager then opened up a seven-point lead at 19-12 before Saina was able to bridge the gap to 16-19. But Zhang held on to her nerves to take the game and the match at 21-17, condemning Saina to yet another quarterfinal loss after the Indian crashed out of the Hong Kong Open at the same stage.

India's journey in the tournament came to an end later in the day, as Sai Praneeth lost his quarterfinal match to Japan's Zhao Jun Peng. Despite putting up a fight before losing the first game by 21-19, there was little resistance from Praneeth in the second game as the Japanese wrapped up the match by winning 21-9.