Indian goes down 4-21 19-21 to Hong Kong’s Mi Zhou in the semis of China Masters, but will be 11th in the world when new rankings are released.
Indian goes down 4-21 19-21 to Hong Kong’s Mi Zhou in the semis of China Masters, but will be 11th in the world when new rankings are released.
MUMBAI: It wasn’t to be third time lucky for Saina Nehwal as she went down to world No. 7 Mi Zhou in the semifinal of China Masters Super Series event on Saturday.
Saina was hoping to take her revenge on Mi, who had beaten her in the semifinals of the Singapore Open in June and in the first round of Japan Open last week. But that wasn’t the case as the world No. 12 went down to Mi 4-21 19-21 in just 26 minutes.
But there is some good news in store for the 18-year-old Hyderabadi girl, who continued her surge up the rankings after another week of stupendous performance. Saina will earn 6420 points for her semifinal appearance in China, which will place her 11th when the latest BWF rankings will be released on Thursday.
Despite the loss, her mentor Pullela Gopichand was happy with her efforts. “It was quite an effort by Saina to travel alone and play without any assistance. Besides, playing three tournaments on the trot might have physically drained her. Though she tried to come back in the second game against Mi, she must have found it a problem,” Gopichand said. “Good thing is that she is doing consistently well in big tournaments. Nowadays it’s very difficult for any top players to consistently win back to back tournaments. It hardly happens in the present scenario, with not much difference between top 15 players.”
In the last seven tournaments, Saina has won one title (Chinese Taipei Open), entered the semis twice (China Masters and Singapore Open) and has entered quarters twice too (Beijing Olympics, Thailand Open). Gopichand feels Saina has to improve her agility and speed if she wants to win more tournament.
“A small difference between two players does have a big impact in a close match. But Saina is still 18, and her performance will get better with experience. We’ll see her winning more tournaments. She has to stay focused and remain injury free.”
After hectic back-to-back tournaments Saina will be back at her base camp in Hyderabad to prepare for the Youth Commonwealth Games in Pune in October followed by Junior World Championships at the same venue.
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