Asian Games: Erratic Saina Nehwal smashed in quarterfinals

India’s stuttering Asian Games campaign received a big jolt when badminton ace Saina Nehwal bit the dust in the quarterfinal of the women’s singles event.

Seeded second here, Saina was stunned by sixth seed Yip Pui Yin of Honk Kong in a late night match at the Tianhe Badminton Hall on Thursday. She lost 21-8 8-21 21-19 in a 46-minute thriller.

Saina played well below par and paid the price. Nothing seemed to click for her. She was error-prone from the beginning. She couldn’t judge Yin’s half-smashes. Her court coverage was poor and she couldn’t read the lines.
Known for her excellent court coverage and powerful smashes, Saina was left gasping by Yin’s sharp play.

Saina’s net play was also poor, to the shock of the motley group of Indian supporters. Except for the second game, which she dominated from the start, Saina played well below the high standards she has set for herself.

It was neck-and-neck in the final game. Down 16-14, Yin fought back to level the scores. It turned into a see-saw battle as the two refused to concede the advantage. After matching steps till 18-18, Yin finally forged ahead at 20-18. Saina pulled one back and faltered at her service to concede a silly match point.

Although short, Yin made it up by leaping for those returns. Yin tried every trick in the book. When Saina threatened to find her rhythm she would deliberately try to delay the proceedings, taking a break to wipe of the sweat, asking for a shuttle change. It all worked for her. She seemed to have psyched Saina so much, that the Indian, shockingly, lost the match point on her service.

Saina had played against Yin twice earlier and the record stood at 1-1. The last time they had met was last year. But, Yin seemed to have become a much-improved player in this period. She caught Saina unawares with an all-out attacking game and didn’t allow her to settle down.

Yin stormed through to the first game 21-8, pinning down Saina  with cross-court smashes and clever play at the net. Many a time, the Hyderabadi was late to react to her drops. “It was a bad day, I don’t know what happened,” said a shocked Saina. “I made too many errors. I just did not play well.”
The Indian ace said that the late start of the match also did not help. “We had to wait a long time as the earlier match went on till long.” Saina’s match was delayed by 50 minutes and started at 10.45 pm.

Bhat, Jwala-Diju crash out
Meanwhile, men’s singles player Aravind Bhat and mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and V Diju crashed out of the badminton competition. Bhat lost 19-21 12-21 to world No 6 Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand in his second round encounter. Jwala and Diju further plunged the Indian camp in dismay as they squandered a first game advantage to lose a gruelling battle against Koreans Baekcheol Shin and Hyojung Lee in the mixed doubles.

The Indian pair lost 21-17 13-21 16-21 against the Korean combination in a 36-minute match.