Saina, Chetan fall in quarters

Fourth seed Saina Nehwal crashed to a disappointing defeat in the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open Super Series here on Friday, going down without a fight to unseeded Eriko Hirose of Japan 21-11 21-13. Compatriot Chetan Anand followed her soon after, but his defeat was not so abject. Chetan lost 21-17 21-14 to second seed Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia.

In the absence of several big names, especially the top Chinese, the Indians were reckoned to have a good chance. But excepting Saina, Chetan and Guru Sai Dutt, none progressed beyond the second round. Saina was expected to go all the way to the title, but on Friday she was a shadow of herself, running out of ideas early and never threatening to take the match.

It was a strangely diffident Saina who took to the court. Hirose raced away with the first game, taking leads of 8-2 and 17-9 and never allowing the Indian a look-in. Saina was erratic too, spraying shots all over the place and unable to come up with answers as the Japanese returned her big smashes.

The lack of variety on strokes was hurting her, as the Japanese looked well-positioned to take most of what she had to offer. It was only midway through the second game that the Indian made her presence felt - climbing from 2-11 down to 8-11. She cracked a couple of unreturnable smashes, and suddenly the Japanese showed signs of frailty - making three successive errors, and giving the Indian a glimmer of hope. Saina inched to 10-13 but the momentum evaporated as quickly as it had come, and Hirose took the next eight points to Saina’s three, earning herself a semifinal place.

“I just didn’t play well,” said Saina. “I haven’t been well the last three to four days, and not been feeling 100 per cent.”

Chetan, although he followed Saina out of the tournament, was more combative in defeat. The Indian was his exquisite best at times, with his usual astonishing variety of strokes, but as is his wont, failed to see the rallies through after controlling them. He had beaten the world no.9 Sony Dwi Kuncoro at this very tournament last year, but on Friday he couldn’t pull it off. Sony kept a handy lead at all times, and even though the Indian climbed close at times, the Indonesian fired accurately at the right moments. “I should’ve been a bit more patient,” said Chetan, who went into the Denmark Open having won the biggest tournament of his career, the Dutch Open Grand Prix Gold. “I tried to finish off the points quickly - that’s a problem with all stroke-players. On some shots my hand felt tight, and I ended up making mistakes. There is still some way to go. These are the kind of matches you should pull off.”

Meanwhile, second seed Tine Rasmussen fought off a sticky match against Adriyanti Firdasari of Indonesia and earned a semifinal spot against Yao Jie of Holland. Eriko Hirose awaits either top seed Wang Yihan or Ai Goto (Japan) in her semifinal.

Late in the day, RMV Gurusaidutt lost his quarterfinal match to fifth seed Simon Santoso of Indonesia 17-21 15-21 in 30 minutes. Gurusaidutt had stunned one and all on Thursday when he beat No. 3 seed Joachim Persson of Denmark in three games.