Johor Bahru: Saina Nehwal’s dream of pocketing back-to-back titles went up in smoke as Chinese qualifier Xin Wang stunned the second-seeded Indian in the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Friday.
Saina cut a sorry figure as Wang took just 26 minutes to tame her fancied opponent 21-14, 21-10 in a lop-sided affair.
Indian challenge ends
With Saina’s loss, Indian challenge ended in the tournament as the top-seeded duo of V. Diju and Jwala Gutta were also shown the door in the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles event by the unseeded Indonesian pair of Hendra Aprida Gunawan and Vita Marissa 8-21, 21-14, 21-16.
Meanwhile, men’s doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas had exited from the tournament on Thursday night, losing its second round match to the Malaysian pair of Teik Chai Gan and Bin Shen Tan 13-21, 23-21, 19-21.
Saina, who last week created history by winning the Indonesian Open Super Series, looked tired and exhausted.
She was nowhere near her best and failed to match her opponent from the start in all departments of the game.
Wang’s dominance in the match could be gauged from the fact that she scored 23 clear winners as against Saina’s 13.
Better at the net
The Chinese shuttler was also the better of the two at the net, winning 11 points while her opponent could only manage seven.
In the first game, both shuttlers went neck-to-neck till the first 15 points but from there on Saina, world ranked seventh, went into a shell as Wang pocketed six straight points to seize the initiative.
The second game started on a similar note with Wang racing on to a 6-0 lead but the Indian, somehow managed to pull up her socks and reduced the deficit to 8-7.
However, it was not to be Saina’s day as the Chinese eventually pocketed the match and a place in the semifinals.
source: www.hindu.com
Saina bows out
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