The Indian mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju crashed out of the World Badminton Championships after a straight games defeat to defending champions and second seeds Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia in the quarter-finals in Hyderabad on Friday.
The world No 8 Indian pair was beaten 16-21, 14-21 in just 27 minutes.
Jwala and Diju were up 9-6 in the first game before squandering the lead. That apparently affected their morale. Then in the second game they lost momentum after the Indonesians broke away from 5-5.
"We played the way they wanted us to play, which was not a clever thing in any way. We were playing close to their body and they were more than comfortable," Diju said after the match.
"They dominated us completely. They defended our smashes well and I feel I tried to hurry things up. I should have slowed down and played long rallies. I lost my patience," Jwala added.
Meanwhile, eighth seed Hongyan Pi of France bounced back from a game down to tame 11th seeded Juliane Schenk of Germany 15-21, 21-15, 21-19 in a women's singles match that lasted more than an hour, while seventh seed Lan Lu of China stunned third seed Tine Rasmussen of Denmark 21-15, 21-13.
Blushing after reaching her first career semi-final in a world championship, Hongyan said she could not explain how happy she was.
"I can't explain how happy I am today. I guess this place is lucky for me," said Hongyan, who won the Indian Open in March here.
"I was confident but she (Juliane Schenk) played really well and kept a high tempo. I had to be more tactical as she was changing her game too often. She started off well but I kept telling myself that I have to belief in myself. It was a high pressure game," she said.
In the men's singles, Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia survived a scare before beating Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark 21-19, 21-19 in a 42-minute match, while second seed Chinese Jin Chen defeated 13th seed Simon Santoso of Indonesia 21-10, 21-13.
