Wednesday was a bad day for India at the Korea Open as Number 8 seed Saina Nehwal retired hurt in her opening match at Incheon against Kim Ga Eun of South Korea on Wednesday. Saina was trailing 21-19, 18-21 and 1-8 against Eun,ranked no 24, when she retired.
Saina had held a 2-0 win record against Eun in their previous matches. Saina has had a tough year in 2019 owing to injuries. Since her win at the Indonesia Open at the beginning of the season, Saina is yet to reach the final of another Badminton World Federation event this year. A week ago, Saina had suffered a first-round exit at the China Open.
Saina became the second Indian player to retire hurt at the Korea Open on the same day. Early in the day, Sai Praneeth retired against Anders Antonsen of Denmark after trailing 21-9, 11-7. After that, world champion P.V. Sindhu suffered a shock defeat in her opening game against Beiwen Zhang of the US. Sindhu had won the first set comprehensively, but eventually lost 7-21, 24-22, 21-15 to Zhang.
In the men's doubles, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy lost to Huang Kai Xiang and Liu Cheng 16-21, 21-19, 18-21. Satwisairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take on Takeshi Kamuri and Keigo Sonoda later in the day.
In seemingly the sole consolation for India, Saina's husband, Parupalli Kashyap defeated Lu Chia Hung of Taiwan shortly before her match. Kashyap registered India's first victory of the day, defeating Hung 21-16, 21-16.
