New Delhi: Indian teenager Saina Nehwal failed to keep the momentum going after winning the Philippines Open and bowed out of the six-star Indonesia Open badminton Championship at Surabaya.
Saina lost in the qualifying rounds of women's singles.
The 16-year-old, who became the first Indian and the youngest Asian to win a four-star event on Sunday, went down fighting 17-21 21-23 in her second qualifying match to Yuan Kartika of Indonesia.
The 86-ranked Saina, who had to go through qualifiers for the $250,000 tournament, got a walkover in the first qualifying match against Fiona Mckee of Canada before going down in the second round match.
The loss, nevertheless, will not take away the shine from the achievements of young Saina, who beat world No 4 and top seed Xu Huwaein of Germany in the quarter-finals en route to her title triumph at Manila.
The Hyderabad girl hardly got any breathing space as she had to leave for Surabaya barely hours after her victory in Manila.
"It takes a lot of effort to perform so well in back to back tournaments. She will have to learn how to to travel and keep focus while playing tournaments at this level," her coach Pullela Gopichand said.
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