HYDERABAD: Lin Wang of China ended Saina Nehwal’s dream run in the World Badminton Championship at GMC Balayogi-SAAP Indoor Stadium
on Friday.
With Saina’s exit, India’s challenge came to an end. The world No. 2 won 21-16, 1-19 in 39 minutes to book a semifinal berth where she faces teammate and seventh seed Lu Lan, who shocked third seed Tine Rasmussen (Denmark) 21-15, 21-13 in another quarterfinals.
Top seed Zhou Mi of Hong Kong, too, bite the dust, falling to fifth seed Xingfang Xie (China). Xie won 21-15, 21-18 in 47 minutes. Xie will now
play the India Open winner and eighth see Hongyan Pi (France), who rallied to defeat 11th seed Juliane Schenk 15-21, 21-15, 21-19.
It was Wang, who avenged her Indonesian Open Super Series final defeat. She came with a plan. Backed by a vociferous crowd, Saina played bravely but she was not good enough on the day as the Chinese was dominant and consistent, particularly when it mattered most.
“She (Wang) was really good today. There were too many mistakes from my part,’’ said a dejected Saina after the match.
Wang made the early inroads. She forced Saina to make unforced errors by playing at the net. The Chinese took a big 8-1 lead. But Saina changed her tactics and began to find her rhythm. The Indian clawed back to level at 11-all. Wang took the first game in 18 minutes.
Saina came out of her shell in the second game. She played aggressively and outfoxed Wang at the net to take a 10-2 lead. There was a wonderful backhand flick which stunned the crowd and the player. But hereabout came the Chinese fightback. Wang slowed down the game and did not give any openings for Saina whose game began to crumble. Her defence fell apart. Wang began to dominate with net dribbles.
From 2-10, it was 10-all. There was intense fight for points as Wang pulled away from the Indian who could not retrieve the Chinese smashes or
drop shots. Saina made a last-ditch effort by making it 19-20 but Wang sealed victory with two clinical shots. “She (Wang) grabbed four successive points when the score was 17-15,” said Saina.
Despite the loss, Saina was happy with her performance. “I played well today. Considering the fact that I did not have that much practice owing to chicken pox I enjoyed my performance. I lost in pre-quarters of the world championship last time. But this year despite some challenges I reached the quarters. This in itself is a good improvement,” said Saina.
Jwala-Diju pair crashes out
Earlier, second seeds and defending champions Nova Widianto and Lilliyana Natsir of Indonesia ended the run of eighth seeds V Diju and Jwala Gutta of India in the mixed doubles quarterfinals with a 21-16, 21-14 win in 27 minutes. Jwala and Diju began well as they took a 6-4 lead but once Widianto and Natsir found the right length they began to dominate.and put the Indians on the back foot.