Saina Nehwal – Badminton

India’s hopes for a World Badminton Championships title were doused today with the loss of ace shuttler Saina Nehwal to sixth seed Chinese Shixian Wang 8-21, 14-21 in the quarterfinals. World Number 2 Nehwal was simply outplayed by her opponent in the short encounter.

Nehwal was taken aback with Wang’s domination of the game from the word go and she could never recover from the early blows, losing the first set quickly and could not muster a fight back in the second set.

The second seed Indian, tipped to be one of the hot favourites to win the title, was not at her best and lagged behind right from the start as the Chinese opened up a 3-0 lead in the first game.

Though Saina caught up with her opponent at 6-6, Wang pocketed eight straight points to surge ahead and held her fort as the Indian’s game crumbled.

The second game was no better as once again the Chinese opened up a 3-0 lead early and kept the distance growing. The Hyderabadi tried her bit but could not sustain for long as her World Championship hopes ended in smoke after a 34 minute Chinese dominated battle.

By: Devesh D. Bhuwad

Tags: Badminton, China, Indian Sports, Saina Nehwal, Shixian Wang, Sports, Sports India, World Badminton Championships