Saina Nehwal out of Beijing Olympics

Indian challenge in the Olympics' badminton competition ended on Wednesday after Saina Nehwal bowed out of the women's singles event following a quarterfinal loss to Indonesian Maria Kristin Yulianti in Beijing.

The 18-year-old Indian, on her maiden Olympic trip, went down 28-26 14-21 15-21 in the thrilling contest against her world number 16 rival.

In a nail-biting opening game, Saina frittered away a game point before getting her act together to go one up. However, unfazed by the initial setback Yulianti equalised in the next game, helped to a large extent by Saina's mistakes.

The decider looked like going Saina's way as she led 11-5 at one point but nerves got the better of the world number 15 Indian in the closing stages as Yulianti equalised before racing away with the game and the match.

On her expectations for the semi-final, probably against defending champion Zhang Ning from China, Yulianti said that the further the competition goes, the harder it gets obviously.

"I don't want my tournament to end in the next match, and I want to do the best that I possibly can," she said.

In the men's competition, Anup Sridhar has already made his exit, losing in the round of 16 of the men's singles event.