Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal's poor form in international arena continued as she suffered a first round exit in the Singapore Open Super Series while PV Sindhu made her way into the pre-quarterfinals after a hard-fought victory in women's singles on Wednesday.
World number eight Saina fought for an hour and two minutes before losing 21-16 15-21 11-21 to lower ranked Eriko Hirose of Japan.
Sindhu, seeded eighth in the USD 300,000 tournament, also had a tough time against Millicent Wiranto of Indonesia before securing a 21-9 19-21 22-20 victory in a closely-fought 56-minute match on the opening day of the main draw.
The first game saw a dominant Sindhu leading all through and taking it with ease.
Wiranto, however, fought back brilliantly in the second game as she took a 13-9 lead before Sindhu levelled the score at 13-13. The duo were tied at 18-18 and then 19-19 before Wiranto grabbed two straight points to take the second game.
In the decider, the two players did not give any inch to the other in the thrilling contest. But, Sindhu saved the best for the last as she took three points on the trot after 17-17 to reach the game point.
Wiranto was not the one to throw in the towel easily and she fought back to make it 20-20. But, her resistance finally ended as Sindhu took two consecutive points to take the third game and the match.
Sindhu will take on Shizuka Uchida of Japan on Thursday for a place in the quarterfinals.
In other matches, K Srikanth won his first round singles match against Takuma Ueda of Japan 23-21 21-15. Srikanth will take on seventh seed Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam in the pre-quarterfinals.
However, Indian women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost to Chinese duo of Ying Luo and Yu Luo 15-21 16-21 in the first round.
Other Indians in the fray - B Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy and PC Thulasi - advanced to the next round after registering contrasting victories.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina hardly broke a sweat in the opening game though. Dominating from the start, the shuttler opened up a 5-2 lead and eventually extended it to 13-4, before wrapping it up 21-16 in style.
Saina, seeded seventh, also started the second game well as she took a 4-2 lead. But the Japanese quickly got her act together and from tied 4-4 position, she surged ahead to 10-4.
Thereafter, the Indian was always on the backfoot and was playing the catching-up game. Hirose finally stole the game 21-15 to take the match to the decider.
In the final game, the Japanese straightaway moved up 5-0 and continued to maintain a comfortable cushion to seal it off comfortably in the end.
In other women's singles first round matches, Arundhati Pantawane fought hard before going down to another Japanese Shizuka Uchida 21-16 11-21 15-21 in just over an hour, while top seed and Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China made mincemeat of Tanvi Lad during her 21-6 21-11 win.
However, PC Thulasi notched up a 21-13 21-16 victory over New Zealand's Anna Rankin to set up a second round clash with world number two Chinese Yihan Wang, who was the runners-up at the India Super Series last week.
World number 45 Praneeth defeated Malaysia's Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif 21-13 21-15 in half-an-hour in a men's singles match. He will next take on Zi Liang Derek Wong of Singapore.
HS Prannoy, too, produced a good show to prevail over Thailand's Thammasin Sitthikom 21-17 14-21 21-11. He will be up against fifth seed Pengyu on Thursday. But, Anand Pawar's campaign ended as he lost 10-21 15-21 to Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia.
Indian men's doubles pair of Alwin Francis and Arun Vishnu put up a fine performance to outwit Chinese Taipei's Jui Wei Liang and Kuan Hao Liao 21-15 16-21 22-20 in a 50-minute match.
However, it was curtains for mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun Kona as they lost 15-21 10-21 to local shuttlers Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Yu Yan Vanessa Neo.
Earlier on Tuesday, India's mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Jishnu Sanyal faltered at the qualifiers, losing 14-21 18-21 to Hong Kong's Tang Chun Man and Tsz Ka Chan.
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