India's top shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Beijing Olympics after losing a exhausting quarter-final encounter of the women's singles badminton event here on Wednesday.
Courageous Sania lost to Indonesia's Maria Kristin Yulianti 16-28, 21-14 and 21-15.
Sania overcame a tough challenge put up by her Indonesian opponent Maria Kristin Yulianti in the very first game. Saina was well leading 20-16 and needed only one point to settle the game but Yulianti fought back hard to level the score 20-20.
However, Saina kept her cool and seal the first game 28-26 in her favour after wasting as many as eight game points.
Yulianti bounced back in the second game as she maintained her lead right from the start. Yulianti levelled the game 1-1 with a comfortable scoreline of 21-14.
Saina gained the lead right from the start in the deciding game as at one stage she was comfortably leading 8-1. But Yulanti came back strongly to first level the score and then took a decisive lead of 19-12.
Saina Nehwal was just one win away from ensuring India another individual medal after she stunned fourth seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong to move into the quarter-finals of the event.
Saina, ranked 15, defeated Wang 21-19, 11-21, 21-11 in a grueling pre-quarterfinal contest on Monday. After first two easy encounters, there was no looking back for Saina as she booked her last eight places with ease with some elegant placement and perfect drop shots.
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