The last few weeks have been very stressful for Saina Nehwal. The hue and cry over her change of coach, from Gopi Chand to Vimal Kumar, and over the disappointing world championship performance has hit her hard.
So everybody was keen to know how Saina would fare after the change, however brief her stay in Bangalore may have been.
The Indian did well, tormenting world No. 3 Wang Yihan in the opening game before losing the quarterfinal 19-21, 21-9, 21-7 at the Asian Games here on Friday.
With that, the Indian badminton team ended its campaign at Incheon with one women’s team bronze.
For nearly 30 minutes at the Geyang Gymnasium, Wang appeared rattled as Saina grabbed five straight points, from 11-15 to 16-15, before taking the first game.
The Chinese, the second seed here, has probably never seen the Indian in such an aggressive mood and moving so fast. Wang had beaten Saina in straight sets in their four previous encounters, spread over two years, but here as Saina kept picking up points, the Chinese suddenly appeared tired.
Saina made her opponent lunge with her net-play, pushed her back hard and from side to side with smart shots.
The Chinese was in knots, she fell into a series of errors, she was lunging and then backwheeling too often, dancing to the Indian’s tune and one could see the strain very clearly.
But Wang, being Wang, knew what was wrong. She quickly pushed away the worried Wang and brought in a new one: the fighting Wang. Despite Saina taking a 3-1 lead in the second game, this new Wang easily regained the advantage, forcing the world No. 7 into errors.
Under pressure, Saina began to commit mistakes. She could not read the lines properly, frequently hitting wide or long or into the net. And then it was all over.
Kashyap out
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s men’s top seed Lee Chong Wei defeated India’s unseeded P. Kashyap 21-12, 21-11, while rising star K. Srikkanth, the world No. 22, took a game off world No. 7 Korean Son Wan Ho before losing 19-21, 21-11, 21-18 in the pre-quarterfinals.
The results:
Men’s singles pre-quarterfinals : 1-Lee Chong Wei (Mas) bt P. Kashyap (Ind) 21-12, 21-11; 5-Son Wan Ho (Kor) bt K. Srikkanth (Ind) 19-21, 21-11, 21-18.
Men’s doubles quarterfinals : 2-Mohammed Ahsan & Hendra Setiawan (Ina) bt Manu Attri & Sumeeth Reddy (Ind) 21-12, 21-19.
Women’s singles quarterfinals : 2-Wang Yihan (Chn) bt 6-Saina Nehwal (Ind) 21-19, 9-21, 7-21.
