Saina loses in All England Championship’s semi final match
Birmingham: Saina Nehwal’s dream of winning her maiden All England Championship went up in smoke as the Indian suffered a straight-game defeat to world number eight Intanon Ratchanok of Thailand in the semifinals of the women’s singles competition.
In the second game, Saina had open up a narrow 5-3 lead but the Thai girl used her accurate placing and varied stroke to reel off five straight points to move ahead 8-5. Inthanon kept doing the good work to lead 18-14. But she hit a couple of points wide to allow to narrow the gap. An error of judgement gave Intanon two match point. Saina saved one with a smash but she faltered at the nets next to gave the Thai a place at the finals.
The court coverage of Inatanon was fantastic as she used the court really well to go up 6-4 in the first game. The more experienced Saina however levelled the scores at 6-6 and the match went on even keel. What hurt Saina more was her error in judgement as she let go a lot of shots anticipating that it will be going out.
The 18-year-old Thai girl was certainly a far more superior player on the day. There were quick smashes and those deceptive drop shots at the net which the Olympic bronze medalist didn’t have any answer.
