Saina slams ‘very sick’ umpiring after defeat in Round of 16

BASEL: Saina Nehwal on Friday slammed the standard of umpiring in her BWF World Championships pre-quarterfinal loss to Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt, terming it “very sick”.

Her husband Parupalli Kashyap, who often sits by the courtside during her matches, also lashed out at the umpire following the narrow defeat.

“Still can’t believe 2 match points which the umpire overruled in the second game. And the umpire tells me in the mid of second game ‘let the line umpires do their job’ and I don’t understand suddenly how the umpire overruled the match points..very sick,” the London Olympic bronze medallist tweeted.

Saina, who had won a silver at the 2015 World Championships and a bronze in 2017, put up a gritty performance before losing 21-15, 25-27, 12-21 to Blichfeldt, seeded 12th, in the women’s singles match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes on Thursday.

There was no video referral in place for Saina’s match as it was not held in one of the two courts with live streaming facility.

“2 match-points snatched away by bad umpiring. And numerous wrong decisions,” Kashyap, a 2014 Commonwealth Games champion, wrote on his twitter handle.

“Unbelievable that there are no reviews on other courts at the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS. When will our sport get better ? SICK @bwfmedia @HSBCBWF @NSaina #feelingcheated #totalbwfworldchampionships2019.”

While Saina exited, Olympic and two-time World Championship silver medallist PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth progressed to the semi-finals of the women’s singles and men’s singles competition, respectively.