Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal bowed out of the Swiss Open Super 300 tournament after a hard-fought first-round loss to Phittayaporn Chaiwan of Thailand in Basel.
The Indian shuttler battled for 58 minutes before going down 16-21, 21-17, 21-23 to Chaiwan in the women’s singles event on Wednesday night.
Nehwal started off well but the youngster from Thailand controlled the tempo of the opening game with her drops and slices to open up a lead. A spate of errors from the Indian saw her drop the first game.
But the former world No 1 fought back in the second game. Neither Nehwal nor Chaiwan have managed a two-point lead till 13-13 but the Indian pulled away in the back-end to get five game points and converted the third to force a decider.
From then, it was a nerve-wracking finish to the match. From 7-10 down, Nehwal won four points in a row to take a slender lead at the final change of ends and then opened up a 19-17 lead with betetr control of rallies.
But the Thai…