Saina Nehwal makes first-round exit from Orleans Masters

London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Orleans Masters badminton tournament with a straight-game first-round loss to Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit, here on April 5.

London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Orleans Masters badminton tournament with a straight-game first-round loss to Turkey's Neslihan Yigit, here on April 5.

Mithun Manjunath, Priyanshu Rajawat, Aakarshi Kashyap and Tanya Hemanth progressed to the second round.

Returning to the court after missing a few tournaments, the celebrated Indian shuttler tamely went down 16-21 14-21 to Turkish qualifier Yigit in 39 minutes.

Saina, who missed the All England Championships and has dropped to 32 in the BWF Rankings, had her right knee heavily strapped.

She looked sluggish and was slow off the blocks as she trailed Yigit 4-11. Saina, however, fought back to narrow down the deficit to 13-15 but the gap was eventually too much as the Turkish shuttler took the first game.

A rusty Saina was down against in the second game, trailing 6-11 at the mid-game interval and eventually losing the tie in straight games.

Sameer Verma, on the other hand, squandered a game lead to lose 19-21, 21-19, 21-17 against Ireland's Nhat Nguyen.