The Indian challenge came to an end as Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Australian Open Superseries. World No.1 Saina failed to stick to her game plan and suffered a 15-21, 13-21 loss to two-time All England Champion and fifth seed Shixian Wang in a 41-minute clash. Shixian also equals her head to head counters with Nehwal by 6 all. Shixian flawless game proved unbeatable and the defending Hyderabadi was not able to match up to her game.
The first game was almost neck-to-neck till 14-all, but Shixian was unstoppable after that. She played flawlessly and ended the first game with a 6 point lead. The second game saw several judgment errors for the defending champion Saina, who kept losing points; finally Shixian with her extraordinary game shut the game at 13-21. In the semi-final on Saturday, world No.6 Shixian will face world No.12 South Korean Bae Yeon Ju, who overcame Canadian Michell Li with a 21-8, 17-21, 21-10 victory.
