Sports
Saina goes down to Carolina in All England final
Birmingham, March 8
In a major heartbreak,
Saina Nehwal lost the women's singles final of the $500,000 All England
Open Badminton Championships to Spain's Carolina Marin here on Sunday.
In
her attempt to become the first Indian woman to win the prestigious
Super Series Premier event, she took off well to win the opening game
and lead in the second. However, a major turnaround saw the reigning
World Champion demonstrate pure skill and class to earn a
come-from-behind 16-21, 21-14, 21-7 win in an hour and two minutes.
Playing
in front of a packed Barclaycard Arena with the crowd chanting "India,
India" and "Come on Saina", the World No.3 started well by convincingly
winning the first game and looked to emulate the legendary Prakash
Padukone and Pullela Gopichand, who won the title in 1980 and 2001,
respectively.
The World No.3 had a brilliant start with supreme
all-court play to easily dominate her European opponent. The third seed
used her experience to go in to an 11-6 lead which she almost doubled up
to reach gamepoint at 20-11. The sixth seed managed to save five points
before a body smash by Saina helped her to take the lead in the match.
In
the second game the sixth seed matched her Asian opponent but Saina
appeared to have the edge when she took a 10-6 lead. However, the
reigning European champion turned the tables to first level the game at
11-all and again at 13-all and then race away to win eight of the next
nine available points to level the match.
Saina's smashes were
regularly being picked by the Spanish World No.6, who upped the ante to
change the momentum of the contest. Carolina used her deceiving shots
and sliced smashes to good effect to take the lead. By now, the
24-year-old Indian appeared unable to win points and she also made some
poor line calls.
The more the rallies extended, the better it
proved to be for the 21-year-old Carolina as Saina hurried to close the
points and made errors. In the end, a wayward shot allowed Carolina to
level the match and push it to the decider.
The third game was a
one-way show as Carolina totally routed her opponent, who had by now
definitely lost the momentum and the confidence to win the match. By the
mid-game break, Carolina had gone on to a big 11-4 lead.
Her shots and lightning movement were too fast for Saina, who slumped to her first defeat to the Spaniard in four meetings.