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Indian shuttle queen Saina Nehwal had to settle for the silver medal after putting up a valiant fightback against World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the final of the Denmark Open 2018 in Odense, Denmark on Sunday. Nehwal managed to grab the middle game but it could not deter the top seed from coming back and completing a 21-13, 13-21, 21-6 win in 52 minutes.
This was the first time since the 2015 Dubai World Superseries Finals that the Indian was able to take a game off the Chinese Taipei star. Saina has already lost to Tai four times this year.
This was also Nehwal’s second appearance in the final of this prestigious Super 750 tournament in Denmark, having won it in 2012.
Saina displayed some excellent fighting skills and temperament throughout the week in Odense, accounting for the likes of Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara, both of whom have been causing trouble for her of late. Her visibly improved footwork and fitness rewarded her with a first final on the BWF World Tour since the Indonesia Masters in January.
And Nehwal carried on that momentum and confidence into the final against an opponent she has lost to the last 10 times.
The former World No. 1 started off the proceedings with a lot of aggression and speed, knowing fully well that there would be no other way of stopping the planet’s best shuttler. Even though her intentions were good, she failed to execute her plans to perfection as Tai soon started varying the placement of the shuttle and kept moving Saina to every part of the court.
Saina opted for body jamming smashes and reduced the deficit from 5-11 to 8-11 only to see Tai outfoxing her with some more guile and disguise that helped the shuttle to land right inside the baseline.
Having lost the first game 13-21, Nehwal made a spectacular turnaround in the second game and opened up a big lead soon enough. Altering her shot placements and going for ruthless attack helped her as long as she kept the points short. Saina’s down-the-line smashes, especially, were a thing of beauty to which even the irrepressible Tai had no answer to.
From 5-2, she stormed ahead to 9-4 and then steadily kept bagging the points to open up a seven-point difference at 15-8. Her body language looked extremely positive as she kept urging herself time and again to produce the shots, which she did with relative ease. That approach got her the second game by an identical scoreline.
Having given so much effort in the second game, she had not much left in the tank in the decider and Tai simply ran away, producing her naturally brilliant game. She first inched ahead to 11-2 and then conceded only four more points to close out the win on her first match point.
