Queen Kong
Hong Kong, Dec. 12: Saina Nehwal showed her grit and class as she crushed China’s Shixian Wang 15-21, 21-16, 21-17 in a marathon encounter to win the Hong Kong Open and claim her career’s fourth Super Series badminton title, the third of the year.
In front of a packed Queen Elizabeth stadium, Saina and Shixian, the two 20-year-olds who rose to great heights this season, produced enthralling high-quality badminton that kept the spectators on the edge of their seats for close to an hour and 11 minutes.
Saina summoned her fighting strength, that has taken her to the top of international badminton, as she rallied from a game down. She was calm even in tense moments against Shixian, who won the Swiss and Korea Super Series titles this season besides the Asian Games gold.
Sunday’s win will provide Saina succour after her disappointing Asian Games ouster where she was a strong medal hope, but lost to Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong in the quarterfinals. She avenged her Asiad loss against Pui with a ruthless performance in the quarterfinal and her defeat at the hands of Shixian in the World Championships quarterfinal, the only time the two clashed earlier.
It was a ferocious battle. Both Saina and Shixian came back strongly each time they were in perilous position taking points in heaps to keep themselves in the match.
The two were tied 5-5 and then 7-7 in the first game in which Saina, playing from the faster side of the court, saw her lifts falling out and had difficulty in controlling the shuttle.
Shixian forged ahead 14-9 and maintained the lead but Saina stayed closer, much to the comfort of the Chinese. Shixian, however, broke free from 16-14 and pocketed four points in the trot to put in beyond Saina.
Having moved to the other side of the court, it was Saina’s chance to dictate terms. She forced the Chinese to make errors.
Down 4-5, Saina reeled off seven points to open up a 11-5 lead. Shixian clawed back with her fast drives to close the gap at 10-11.
The Indian again hit the purple patch and took another seven points on trot (19-11). Shixian threatened another comeback with five straight points but finally conceded.
Saina made a strong start in the decider and led 5-0. Just when she was looking at the prospect of moving to her favourite side of the court with a handosme lead, Shixian forced her way back. It was a battle of nerves from then on. Shixian had to play catch up for most of the game before going up for the first time at 14-13. Down 15-16, Saina unpacked her vastly improved strokes.
With a killer smash, a deft net-placing, and cross-court shots, Saina moved ahead at 19-16 to gain upper hand, taking the contest firmly in her grip.
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