2023 Malaysia Open | Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth make early exit
Indian shuttlers started poorly at the Malaysian Open 2023 as Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, both suffered first-round exits on Tuesday. Nehwal, who had a poor 2022, went down 12-21, 21-17, 12-21 to Han Yue of China in the USD 1,250,000 Super 1000 tournament, raising eyebrows over her form.
After losing the first game comfortably, she did manage to pull one back but did not have enough steam to go over the line, something which has been a constant feature in her game for the last year. On the other hand, Srikanth went down in his match against Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 19-21,14-21 in 42 minutes.
Although he gave a tough fight in the first game, it just wasn't enough on the day. At one stage the scores were locked at 12-12 in the second game, but Srikant could not capitalise from there on. Apart from that, it was also curtains for Akarshi Kashyap who was outplayed 10-21, 8-21 by Wen Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei in her women's singles opener.
The men's doubles pair of Krishna Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Panjala too crashed. They lost 10-21, 18-21 loss against South Korea's Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand did manage to register a win though, as they won againstĀ Hong Kong's Yeung Nga T and Yeung PL 21-19, 21-14.