Internet Desk: The 2016 Rio Olympics witnessed one of its biggest upsets as the 2012 London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal was knocked out of the competition, losing to Maria Ulitina of Ukraine 21-18 21-19 in the Group G match on Sunday.
Saina began the opening game on a good note leading 6-1, but the Ukrainian came back hard at Saina with a fearless game not allowing Saina to settle down at any point. The Indian led 11-10 at the interval in the opening game but following continued to struggle as Ulitina piled on the pressure with a mixture of long hits and drop shots to eventually clinch the opening game 21-18.
The second game began promisingly again for Saina but Ulitina pegged her back constantly, again targeting the cross court. The Indian led 11-9 at the interval, but the advantage was squandered soon after the break and as much as the Indian tried, she could never really get it back and eventually lost the game 21-19 to crash out of Rio 2016.