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Saina begins with a loss in Superseries Finals
Saina Nehwal's poor form in the international arena continued as she lost to Japan's Minatsu Mitani 21-19 22-24 19-21 in a hard-fought three-game battle in her opening match of the BWF Superseries Finals here on Wednesday.
Saina Nehwal's poor form in the international arena continued as she lost to Japan's Minatsu Mitani 21-19 22-24 19-21 in a hard-fought three-game battle in her opening match of the BWF Superseries Finals here on Wednesday.
World No 6 Saina, who struggled with injuries this season, fought for 68 minutes before her Japanese rival got better of her.
Saina has been clubbed in Group B along with world No 1 and Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China, world No 7 Yeon Ju Bae of Korea, besides world No 13 Mitani during the year-end tournament, which is being fought among top eight performers from the 12-event Super Series circuit.
Top two players from Group A and B will advance to the semifinals. The winner of Group A will play against the runner-up of Group B, while the winner of Group B take on the runner-up of Group A in the semifinals for places in the final.
Saina began well, pocketing the first game 21-19. However, in the second, the Japanese reduced the Indian's 7-0 lead to 7-5 in a matter of minutes. Thereafter, it was a neck-and-neck battle and finally it was Mitani who took the match to the decider. In the final game, Mitani closed out the match with couple of winners.
