Carolina Marin beats Saina Nehwal in the final of All England Championships

Carolina Marin attempts a smash in her win over Saina Nehwal at the All England Open final

Ace Indian shuttler and Olympic bronze-medalist Saina Nehwal went down in the finals of $500,000 Yonex All England Badminton Championships. Saina, who became the first Indian female player to reach the final of the All England Championships lost to the World ranked 6 Spanish shuttler Carolina Marin 21-16, 14-21, 7-21.

World No. 3 Saina, who won the Syed Modi International Grand Prix gold title in January, lost to the reigning World Champion Marin in a three game match which lasted for an hour and two minutes. Saina, who had a win-loss record of 3-0 against the 21-year old Spaniard prior to this match looked in supreme touch in the opening game as she took a strong five point lead before the mid game interval.

The two players seemed engaged in a battle of smashes and were at par with each other when it came to baseline rallies. With such a good lead, Saina faced absolutely no difficulty in closing the first game 21-16.

Spanish shuttler looked a bit nervous in the early part of the second game as she started making a lot more errors. Trailing by 9-11 at the half way mark, Marin made a remarkable comeback and won the next twelve out of fifteen points to seal the game 14-21.

Third game was a completely one sided affair as Marin didn’t gave her opponent a single chance to come close. Leading by 8-4, Marin reeled off eight points in quick succession to take an unbeatable lead. She closed the game with ease by a score of 7-21.