World Badminton Championships: Game Over for Saina Nehwal, India
India’s Saina Nehwal bowed out yesterday in the women’s singles quarter-finals in World Badminton Championships at Paris.
Indian hopes of medal at World Badminton Championship ended after defeat of ace shuttler Saina Nehwal and mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju at the high-profile tournament on Friday.
Wang Shixian, seeded six, thrashed the Indian 21-8 21-14 victor in a contest that lasted just 34 minutes to reach the semifinals of the women’s singles. In the first game, Wang was leading 5-1 and Saina fight back to level the scores at 6-6. But Saina couldn’t sustain it and let Wang surge ahead to lead 16-8, before closing it with a scream at 21-8.
Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also made an exit from women’s doubles, losing to sixth seeds Jung Eun Ha and Ming Jung Kim. In the men’s doubles, 15th seeds Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas also failed to continue their good run.
It was most disappointing outcome for India after the defeat of Saina in Quarter Finals because it put an end to a dream that had endured over three tournaments — Indian Open, Singapore Super Series and Indonesia Super Series.
Nation’s expectations to Saina were high, especially after golfer Arjun Atwal became the first Indian to win on the PGA Tour last Sunday.
After the match Saina told reporters, “My weakness was that I was not moving at all. I was trying to be more quick around the net but somehow my movement was very, very slow and I was feeling too tired today. Wang was quicker in her movements and she was more attacking at the net.”
“It happens. You win some, you lose some. I thought maybe I could progress a bit further so it was a sad day today. It was not my day but I tried my best”, she added.
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