Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal's struggles continued with a first-round loss against Japan's Sayaka Takahashi in the Denmark Open in Odense, Denmark, on Wednesday.
The world number 8 Saina lost 15-21 21-23 in the women's singles match that lasted 37 minutes to crash out of the USD 775,000 tournament. The 29-year-old London Olympics bronze medallist was the runner-up last year.
Saina has been going through a tough phase with fitness issues since claiming the Indonesia Masters in January. She had also made first-round exits at the China Open and Korea Open earlier this year.
World number 12 Takahashi had defeated Saina the last time they met at the Thailand Open in August.
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Sameer Verma, however, crossed the first hurdle in the men's singles when he beat Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 21-11 21-11 in 29 minutes to advance to the second round.
The Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also made it to the second round with a 21-16 21-11 win over the German duo of Marvin Seidel and Linda Efler.
In another mixed doubles first round match, Satwiksairaj Ranki and Ashwini Ponnappa did not take the court and conceded a walk over to the second seeded Chinese pair of Wang Yi Lyu and Huang Dong Ping.
