Saina, Anup bow out of Singapore Super Series

New Delhi:

India's campaign at the Aviva Singapore Super Series came to an end on Friday after both Saina Nehwal and Anup Sridhar lost their respective quarter-finals.

Tournament sixth-seed Saina went down 21-19, 19-21, 14-21 to China's Wang Lin in the women's singles while qualifier Anup's dream run was cut short 11-21, 8-21 by Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana.

Anup, who had upset world number two Peter Gade of Denmark on Thursday, could not quite bring his game to the same level as he was waylaid by the Thai with relative ease.

Anup, ranked 39th in the world, offered some resistance in the first game, keeping things level till 12th point.

Thereafter, he lost the plot and the Thai world number 19 opened up a four point lead which he steadily improved to walk away with the first game in 13 minutes.

The Indian failed to show the spirit that made him upset Gade and allowed Boonsak to open up a five-point lead at 5-10. The unseeded Thailand shuttler gave Anup no chance and wrapped up the second game and match in 14 minutes.

World number seven Saina was trailing 8-10 in the first game but staged a brilliant fightback that saw her forge ahead of world number four Lin 12-11.

Thereafter, she always stayed a step ahead of her higher ranked opponent to clinch the opener.

But the third-seeded Lin was not to be outdone and she fought back to square the second game. Both were level till 14-14 but then the Chinese slowly surged ahead before wrapping up the game at 21-19.

In the decider, sixth-seed Saina just fizzled out after going level till six-all. The Chinese opened up a three-point lead at 11-8 and for the rest of the game Saina was made to play catch up.

The encounter lasted 59 minutes.