New Delhi, Jan 19: Saina Nehwal made a second round exit in her first tournament of the season when she lost to home challenge Mew Choo Wong at the Proton Malaysian Open Super Series in Kuala Lumpur.
World number 26 Saina lost the encounter 17-21 12-21 to Wong, placed 10 notches above her in rankings.
Saina had earlier carved out an upset win against world no. 22 Judith Meulenkijks of the Netherlands in the first round.
In the men’s fixture, Chetan Anand fell in the second round going down to Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark 12-21 14-21.
Anand had to quell the challenge of compatriot Aunp Sridhar, who had to pass through the qualifier, in the first round.
The women’s pair of Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian lost to Yu Mi Hwang and Min Jung Kim of Korea 19-21 5-21.
The super series has been introduced by the world badminton federation this year and consists of 12 open events, each offering a minimum of USD 200,000 in prize money.
These events will lead to the season-ending super series finals, which will be the richest ever badminton tournament to be staged with USD 500,000 prize money for the first year.
(source: Zeenews)
