Denmark Open 2018 | Saina Nehwal goes down fighting against Tai Tzu Ying in final
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Saina Nehwal lost to Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan in the final of the Denmark Open in a three-game contest which ended in 52 minutes. The Indian was unable to beat the young Taiwan player who in recent past has dominated the women’s singles badminton and is also ranked number one in the world.
It was not a fairytale ending to the Denmark Open journey of Saina Nehwal even though she was in fierce form throughout the tournament beating the likes of Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara en route her journey to the final. Saina lost to Tai Tzu Ying 13-21, 21-13, 6-21 in a contest which lasted 52 minutes. The match looked well poised until the final round when the Indian ran out of steam.
In the first game, the world number one Ying took an early lead and moved quickly to six points as Saina still lingered at one. Thereafter Ying never let her guard down and maintained her lead all throughout the game. The closest Saina came to Ying was just after the halftime break when Saina trailed 8-11. But it was as close as it got and Ying started widening the lead thereafter and took the game 21-13.
Saina came back strong in the second game and she led the game all throughout. At the midway interval, she was leading 11-5. Even though Ying tried to make a comeback in the latter half of the second game by taking three consecutive points after the break Saina pushed back and never let her lead go below four points pocketing the second game by taking four consecutive points in the last minutes of the second game.
In the final game, the age difference between the two finalists came into the play as veteran Saina’s experience did not even challenge the Tai Tzu’s young legs as the Taiwanese player scampered home with a huge point gulf of 15 points winning the game 21-6.
