Indian shuttle queen Saina Nehwal started the 2017 season with a title in her first tournament of the year at the Malaysia Masters in Sibu, Sarawak on Sunday. It was not easy for the top seed, who had to come back from a huge deficit in the first game to beat the talented 19-year-old Pornpawee Chochuwong, 22-20, 22-20 in 46 minutes.
This is the first time in her career that the former World No. 1 won this tournament which makes it her eighth win at the Grand Prix Gold level. She also becomes the second consecutive Indian to win the women’s singles title at this event after India’s other golden girl PV Sindhu had triumphed there last year.
Saina comes from behind in stunning fashion
The two players met for the first time today and the experienced Saina initially had a lot of trouble picking up the Thai’s superb dropshots at the net. The World No. 67, who turned 19 today, was the runner-up at the World Junior Championships last year and obviously didn’t feel intimidated to take on the big names.
She went up 4-0 before her highly accomplished rival could even get on the board. Saina managed to somewhat reduce the deficit to 5-9 but it was not enough as her young opponent sailed to a huge 12-5 lead.
Egged on by the crowd, the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist upped her intensity and closed the gap to 8-12 and then used her around-the-head smashes to get to 12-13.
However, a few errors crept up in her game at that juncture and she let the Thai take the upper hand once again to cruise to 18-14. With her fabulous movement around the court and some deft touches at the net, the Indian then steadily clawed her way back to level at 19-19.
Chochuwong even had a game point at 20-19 only to see a determined Saina come storming back to bag the opener, 22-20.
The young shuttler once more got off to a great start in the second game and led 3-0. But it wasn’t for long as the Indian made a wonderful comeback to go up 7-4 and have an 11-8 advantage at the break.
The game stayed pretty competitive despite the Thai looking much worn out. It was when Saina went up 20-16 that she found an extra spurt of energy and saved all the match points with some spirited resistance.
But Saina needed just another match point to do the job. With this straight-game win, she finished the tournament without having conceded any game all week.
Nehwal, who has come back from knee surgery in November, has admitted that she needs another couple of months to get back to peak fitness. This title win will surely do her a world of good as she aims to get back to the top echelons.
