Orleans Badminton Tournament: Saina loses in semifinals

Saina needed to score more and more points in this important event in terms of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.

Lost in the semifinals; In the men's doubles, Krishna-Vishnu defeated in the final

Veteran Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal lost in the semi-finals of the Orleans Masters Badminton Championships on Saturday. However, in the men's doubles, the Indian pair of Krishna Prasad Garga and Vishnu Vardhan managed to reach the final.

Saina needed to score more and more points in this important event in terms of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. In the women's singles semifinals, Lynn Christophersen of Denmark defeated Saina 21-17, 21-17 in just 28 minutes. In the first game, Saina was once leading 11-10, but then Christophersen did not give Saina a chance to lift the game. Therefore, Saina's dream of playing in the final of a tournament for the first time after 2019 was shattered.

In the women's doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy also lost. Leading Thai pair of Jongkolfan Kitharakul and Ravinda Prajongoz defeated Ashwini-Reddy 21-18, 21-9.

In the men's doubles, Krishna and Vishnu defeated England's Callum Hamming and Steven Stallwood 21-17, 21-17 in just 35 minutes. With this victory, they reached the final of the Super 100 competition for the first time. They will face either Indonesia's Saber Gutama and Riza Pehlavi or England's Ben Lane and Sean Wendy in Sunday's final.

In the first game, both the pairs were tied 13-13. But 21-year-old Krishna and 20-year-old Vishnu made good use of crosscourt shots and scored three points in a row and later won the game. The second game also saw a bitter struggle between the two contestants. At half time, the Indian pair took an 11-8 lead. After that, the pair of England filled the gap of 17-15. But under oppression Krishna-Vishnu performed well.

My hopes of qualifying for the Olympics still remain. I played more fights in this tournament. But it was Christophersen who took advantage of my weaknesses in the semi-finals.

• Saina Nehwal