Bangkok, Jan 14 (UNI) Kidambi Srikanth pulled out due to an injury, while Saina Nehwal and Indian doubles' team lost to their respective opponents as India's challenge at the Thailand Open came to an end, here on Thursday.
Nehwal went down fighting 23-21, 14-21, 16-21 in a three-set thriller to local girl Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the women's singles Round of 16, while Srikanth was forced to give a walkover to his eighth seeded Malaysian opponent Lee Zii Jia, after pulling up his right calf muscle.
'Very sad to let you all know that I have been advised to pull out of Thailand Open due to a calf muscle strain. I am hoping to be fit by next week for the next round of the Thailand leg,' Srikanth posted on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost to Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan by 21-19, 21-17 in the second round, to crash out of the tournament.
Later in the day, Satwik and his mixed doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa went down 12-21, 17-21 to Hong Kong pairing of Chang Tak Ching and Ng Wing Yung, bringing an end to India's campaign.
Indian shuttlers will now be hoping for a better show at the Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 event that gets underway next week.
UNI AVK RJ 1934