Saina knocked out of BWF finals
World No.2 Saina Nehwal was knocked out of the Dubai World Superseries Finals on Friday after suffering a three-game defeat against World No. 5 Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei. The Indian, who defeated top-seed Carolina Marina in the match yesterday, failed to produce her best as she bid goodbye to the tournament with a 21-16, 18-21, 14-21 defeat.
The Indian ace started the match confidently by continuing her impressive movements across the court which she pulled out in the last match against World No.1 Carolina Marin. The scoreboard, however, showed a tighter affair with her rival Tai Tzu-ying tip-toeing her on the points tally. When the half-way break came in, Saina was two points ahead of her Chinese Taipei opponent.
The 25-year old maintained her rhythm after the break with her cross court flicks troubling Tzu-ying. Before her rival knew it, Saina had raced to an eight-point lead to reach 19-11, two points away from pocketing the opening game. Tai Tzu-ying showed spirit late in the game to save three game points. However, the Indian capitalised on her rival’s mistake to end the first game 21-16.
As both players returned for the second game, the vociferous ‘Saina squad’ cheered for an easy victory for the Indian. As the match proceeded, Tai Tzu-ying broke her strings in the first rally to add to the cheers. However, the match turned on its head as the Chinese Taipei girl pulled away from the Indian to go into the break with an 11-5 lead.
Commentators pointed towards the drift, but Saina’s errors contributed more towards Tai Tzu-ying’s lead. The Indian showed her old self after the break with four straight points to close the gap. As the sound from the crowd went up, Saina’s game also improved as her smashes found the right side to level the game at 16-16. But it all changed in a minute as multiple errors by the Indian virtually gifted Tai Tzu-ying the second game. Saina showed fighting spirit to save two game points, but the Chinese Taipei girl only needed a point to win the second game 21-18.
Coach Vimal Kumar’s advice did not seem to have any effect as Tai Tzu-ying again raced to an early lead. Fears of Saina’s fitness and the Achilles tendon again surfaced as the Indian struggled to cover the court. From an 11-7 lead at the break, Tai Tzu-ying climbed to a 16-9 lead with the Indian making a few bad judgements along the way. As the ‘Saina, Saina’ sounds went down, the defeat of the Indian loomed large at the Hamdan stadium.
The Indian ace managed to close the gap with some brilliant winners. But her recovery came a little too late as Tai Tzu-ying finished off Saina’s chance of progressing into the semis by winning the third game 21-14. With one win from three games, Saina was piped by Carolina Marina to enter the last four with a better point difference.
In the other game, World No.8 K Srikanth, who lost his chances of moving ahead in the tournament after two defeats in two games completed his pedestrian routine at the season-ender on Friday going down to World No.7 Chou Tien Chen from Taiwan 17-21, 13-21.
Barring a few good net-plays Srikanth struggled throughout the match with Chou Tien Chen dominating the rallies. The Guntur lad started on the back foot with Chou Tien Chen racing to a 9-5 lead. The 22-year old improved his game after the break by performing better in the rallies to close the gap. However, Srikanth’s recovery came a little too late as Chou Tien Chen pocketed the first game 21-17.
The second game started as a much tighter affair with both players going neck-to-neck in the opening exchanges. As the game went on, Srikanth’s errors, however, started creeping up with his desperate smashes going wide. Chou Tien Chen continued his unflustered performance in the second game lending no attention to the vociferous crowd support for Srikanth.
The net-plays which favoured Srikanth in the first game fell on Chou Tien’s side in the second. The Taiwanese went ahead to register his first victory of the tournament by winning the second game 21-13. - eliminating Srikanth with not a single game to his name in the event.
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