Top Indian shuttler Anup Sridhar squandered a one-game advantage to lose to Korean Lee Hyun in the Malaysia Open Super Series men's singles second round in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
World number 26 Sridhar went down 24-22, 14-21, 13-21 to the Korean ranked two places below him at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
Sridhar, who had beaten qualifier Tan Chun Seang of Malaysia 16-21, 21-18, 21-14 in the first round, found a match in the Korean who played superbly in the second and deciding games.
Sridhar won more long rallies than his Korean opponent to go one up but lost steam in the next two games.
Lee Hyun turned the tables by executing a couple of net winners in the next two games which also saw Sridhar dropping several rallies to lose the match in 49 minutes.
With Sridhar's loss, the Indian campaign ended in the top-flight USD 2,00,000 tournament.
Saina Nehwal had crashed out in the first round of women's singles, going down 21-23, 9-21 to higher-rated Juliane Schenk of Germany.
In women's doubles, Shruti Kurian and Jwala Gutta had also failed to advance beyond the first round, losing to English pair of Joanne Nicholas and Natalie Munt 12-21, 21-14, 17-21.
