Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the All England Championship to bring an end to the Indian challenge at the USD 1 million tournament here Friday.
While Saina couldn't find answers to the deceptive strokeplay of her nemesis Tai Tzu-Ying, suffering a 15-21 19-21 loss to the World No 1 Taiwanese in the quarterfinals, former No 1 Srikanth went down 12-21 16-21 to the current men's world no 1 Kento Momota later in the day.
Saina is now 5-15 in Head-to-Head career record with Tzu-Ying and it was her 13th straight defeat against the Taiwanese, who has not lost to the Indian since 2015.
"I had my chances but I got tied up in the last two points," said the 28-year-old from Hyderabad, a 2015 finalist.
"I'm happy that I'm getting closer to the top players. I've not been sleeping because of the pain I've been having in my stomach (due to diarrhea), but I'm really happy that I could play two matches here."