India's Saina Nehwal put up a tough fight before going down 16-21, 19-21 to second-seeded Lin Wang of China in the women's singles quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships here Friday.
The scoreline was not the true reflection of world No.6 Saina's valiant efforts against the world No.2 Chinese at the Balayogi Indoor stadium.
Saina in a see-saw battle trailed 2-9 in the first game but came back strongly to level the game at 11-11. But she slowly lost the momentum and allowed the Chinese to take the game 21-16.
The 19-year-old Indian, however, displayed some brilliant net play and powerful smashes in the second game, opening up a huge lead of 10-2.
The Chinese capitalised on Saina's unforced errors to claw back, and pocketed the game and the match.
With the win, Wang avenged her loss to Saina in the Indonesian Super Series final in June.