Indian challenge ends at All England Open as Saina crashes out
Saina Nehwal, India's last hope at the All England Open, suffered a straight-sets loss in the quarterfinal to Tai Tzu Ying today in London. The World No. 3, who was last year's runner-up at the Open, lost to her lower-ranked opponent from Taiwan 21-15, 21-16 to complete the Indian rout.
The first point saw Tai Tzu Ying scuff her return into the net. Saina took the second point with a delightful cross-court flick before going 3-0 up. But World No. 9 Tai Tzu Ying opened her account with two back-to-back smashes to reach 2-3. Saina's ploy appeared to be to play long rallies to the back-court, and force Tai T Y into making the errors. The game plan worked until 5-3, but Tai T quickly caught on as she started working Saina around to find the openings. She equalized at 5-5 with a deceptive drive to the forecourt and went ahead on a marginal line call to 6-5. Saina continued to react rather than take initiative, and Tai T Y took her chances with an all-out attack and went into double digits with a body smash. Saina showed a glimpse of her attacking game trailing 9-13, but Tai was in sublime form as she punched through Saina's defence again and again to move farther ahead. Tai wrapped up the set 21-15 despite Saina's challenge on the line call after her drop landed just wide.
Saina strangely stuck with her game plan that did not work earlier as Tai tormented her with her deceptive shot to take the first point. The Indian got a breather as Tai's errors gave her three straight points, but she squandered the lead away to go down 3-4. Despite Saina drawing par with a good smash, the Tai juggernaut rolled on as she went up 10-4 with accurate smashes from the back-court and great movement across the court. Saina, however, showed great composure and finally tossed aside the plan to go all-out on the attack. She fought to come to within one point at 10-11, but Tai won the next point with a cross-court smash. Tai again denied Saina the opportunity when she took the all-important point at 14-15 with a deceptive cross-court drive. Tai went to game point after a brief tussle at the net that went her way and then took the match at 21-16.
The performance of the Indian contingent has considerably dented the Olympic hopes of India given the quadrennial event is only months away.