Saina loses in All England quarters.

 Birmingham: Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal exited the $400,000 All England Open Badminton Championships when she lost her women's singles quarter-final match against China's Shixian Wang at the National Indoor Arena here.


The Indian seventh seed lost to World No.3 Shixian 17-21, 10-21 in 43 minutes of the Super Series Premier Friday. With this win, the Chinese bettered her head-to-head with Saina to 3-4.

Fourth seed Shixian will next play compatriot and former world champion Yihan Wang in the semi-finals.

This is World No.7 Saina's third quarter-final loss at the prestigious tournament while her previous best performances here were reaching the semi-finals in 2010 and 2013.

Only two Indians -- Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand -- have won this tournament in the past.