Washington  - The United States said Wednesday it was disappointed that Iran did not extend visas to the US women's badminton team to compete in an upcoming tournament in Tehran.

US State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said the team of eight players, a coach, a manager and two officials from the US Badminton Federation was returning to the United States after being unable to obtain visas in Dubai.

Saina Nehwal's splendid run at the Malaysian Open Super Series badminton came to an end as she went down fighting in the quarterfinals against fourth seed PI Hongyan of France here on Friday.

The World number 10, Saina saved four match points but finally went down 17-21, 26-24, 16-21 against the World number seven Hongyan.

Hongyan went up 4-0 in the first game before Saina levelled at 4-4.

However, Hongyan improved the tempo to claim the opening game.

India’s Saina Nehwal failed to reach the finals of the World Super Series Masters Badminton championship, after losing to third-seed and world No. 6 Chen Wang of Hong Kong in semi finals.

The 18 year old Indian player tried her best but failed to match the experience of the third seed Hong Kong opponent and went down fighting 15-21 21-14 16-21 to bring down curtains in the prestigious tournament.

Pune, Nov 2 : Top seed Saina Nehwal, India''s badminton sensation, has entered into the finals of World Junior Badminton Championships in Pune today.

Nehwal will clash with ninth seed Sayaka Sato of Japan in the finals. 

She had no problems in quelling the challenge of third seed Shixian Wang and took just 37 minutes to sent packing the Chinese 22-20 21-12.

Nehwal is the first Indian to reach the World juniors final twice.