Australian Open | Saina Nehwal beats Sun Yu to win her first Super Series of the year
Just ahead of the Rio Olympics, Saina Nehwal announced her return to form with an 11-21, 21-14, 21-19 win over World No. 12 Sun Yu in the final of the Australian Badminton Open 2016 at Sydney on Sunday. It was Saina's 22nd title, and it could move her up to the third place in the BWF rankings.
Historically, Saina Nehwal has struggled against Chinese shuttlers, however, Sun Yu has been an exception. The 26-year-old had faced Sun Yu on six occasions before this final, and she had won five of them. In fact, the last time Saina lost against her was way back in 2013 at the China Open. This was their third meeting in the Australian Open, and Saina had won both the previous occasions in tightly-contested three setters.
Saina Nehwal made a fine start to the match and raced to a 4-2 lead. She was working her opponent all over the court, and showed some brilliant deft touches at the net. However, the World No. 12 fought back, and pushed her on the backfoot with some aggressive badminton. Sun Yu brought out the big smash at every opportunity she got, and Saina began to falter. With her defensive game under tremendous pressure, the World No.8 displayed some poor judgments and made a lot of unforced errors to trail 5-10.
During the first game, Saina lost three points due to wrong judgments of the shuttle's trajectory and left them without attempting any shots. This gave her opponent some added momentum, and helped her win the first game 21-11.
In the second game, Saina came out of the block with more positive intent, and showed a lot of improvement in her defense. Both the players looked more evenly matched, and they were tied at 8-8 at one stage. Sun Yu was seemingly losing her cool at the other end, and the Chinese made a few unforced errors at the net, which gave Saina an 11-8 lead.
Saina started to attack a lot more in the second half of the second game, and placed a lot of smashes at her opponent's body. There was a huge change in the momentum of the game as Sun Yu struggled to keep up with her opponent. Eventually, Saina won the second game 21-14, courtesy of three back-to-back errors by Sun Yu at the net, to restore parity in the match.
As tiredness began to creep in, both the players made a lot of mistakes. However, it was Saina who looked the more consistent of the two at this point, and the Indian star took an 8-5 lead in the opening exchanges of the third game. However, Sun Yu came to life all of a sudden, just when she looked down and out, and won five points in a row to take back the lead at 10-8.
Sun Yu's momentum did not not last long though as a challenge from Saina Nehwal changed the complexion of the match once again. The Indian challenged the decision of the chair umpire, who called a cross-court smash by her opponent in, and the replay proved her right. After winning that point, Saina took back the lead at 13-11.
Sun Yu showed a bit of resistance in the end, but Saina maintained her lead and, eventually, won the third game 21-19. This was her first title win of the year, and her return to form is just in time, from India's point of view, with the Rio Olympics looming large in the horizon.
Congratulations @NSaina for the stupendous victory. The entire nation is very proud of your sporting accomplishments.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 12, 2016
A moment of pride for the entire nation as @nsaina wins the Australian Open for the second time. Good luck for Rio! pic.twitter.com/p0mVskQA9Y
— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) June 12, 2016
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