Ashmita Chaliha’s QF loss ends India’s challenge in Malaysia Masters Kuala Lumpur

Indian shuttler Ashmita Chaliha's campaign at the Malaysia Masters came to an end after she lost to former European Games champion Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in the women's singles quarterfinals

Kuala Lumpur: Indian shuttler Ashmita Chaliha’s campaign at the Malaysia Masters came to an end after she lost to former European Games champion Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in the women’s singles quarterfinals here on Friday. With Chaliha’s exit, India’s challenge also concluded at the BWF Super 500 tournament.

Chaliha, 71st in the badminton rankings, won the opening game but eventually went down against the 23rd-ranked opponent 23-21, 18-21, 11-21 in 61 minutes.

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The Indian youngster started strong, commanding an 11-6 lead at the mid-game interval. Despite a fierce comeback from the 23rd-ranked Dane, who levelled the score at 17-all, Chaliha held her nerve to convert her third game point and take the first game 23-21.

Chaliha looked strong for a straight-games victory after racing to a 10-5 lead early in the second game. However, Kjaersfeldt flipped the momentum, closing the gap to 11-10 at the break. Post resumption, the Dane levelled the score at 13-all. She then broke away with a four-point streak to lead 18-15 and ultimately took the game 21-18, forcing a decider.

The final game started on an even note at 4-4 before Kjaersfeldt seized complete control, racing to 13-6 lead. Chaliha was unable to recover, and Kjaersfeldt comfortably wrapped up the match by taking the decider 21-11, which ended India’s campaign in Kuala Lumpur.

The rest of the Indian contingent bowed out in their respective matches on Thursday. Malvika bowed out in the second round after a loss to former European Games champion Kjaersfeldt of Denmark on Thursday.

Devika Sihag also exited the women’s singles in the second round after a 21-16, 21-13 defeat to former Olympic champion and top seed Chinese Chen Yufei.

Meanwhile, India’s men’s doubles campaign came to an end after MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan — the only Indian pair at the BWF Super 500 tournament — went down 21-14, 21-15 against Hu Keyuan and Lin Xiangyi of China.

In the mixed doubles, a duo of Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Radhika Sharma suffered a 12-21, 25-27 loss against the USA’s Presley Smith and Jennie Gai.

India’s campaign in the men’s singles ended in the first round following the defeats of Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy on Wednesday.