Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal made a shock exit from the Singapore Super Series after losing her women’s singles quarter-final to Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri, here today.

The world number two Indian squandered a one-game lead to go down 21-17 13-21 13-21 in little less than hour against unseeded Fanetri at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

It was a neck-and-neck battle till the first 10 points of the opening game before Saina took a three point lead at 14-11.

The Indian increased her lead to 17-13 before Fanetri clawed her way back to reduce the margin to just one point at 18-17. But Saina regained her composure and pocketed three straight points to close the game in her favour.

The Indonesian, however, started the second game on a bright note and opened up a 7-4 lead over Saina.

Riding on her smashes and delicate net play, Fanetri increased her lead to 19-10 before sealing the game in her favour to level the scores.

The win in the second game gave immense confidence to Fanetri of registering an upset victory over her higher-ranked opponent as she carried on her good form to open up a 12-3 lead over Saina with clear winners.

The Indonesian did not give any chance to Saina to make a comeback as she increased her lead to 19-9 before giving the knockout punch to the second seeded Indian.

All other Indians in the fray have already bowed out of the competition after losing their respective second round matches.

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