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World No. 1 Saina Nehwal lost to Japan’s Minatsu Mitani in the second round of the Japan Open Superseries on Wednesday. The loss came totally out-of-the-blue as she was expected to win and progress through to the quarterfinals.
Interestingly, this is just the third time that Saina has lost to Mitani in the eight encounters between the two, the last defeat coming at the 2013 Superseries Finals in Dubai, where the Indian lost in three games and prior to that at the 2012 French Open, when the Japanese player beat her in straight games.
Saina’s record against World No. 11 Sun Yu is very good, with the India having won 4 out of the 5 encounters against her. Her only loss against Sun came at their first ever meeting in 2012. The head-to-head is another example of how Saina has played a key role in reducing China’s dominance over the sport.
Her record against World No. 12 Bae Yeon Ju is also very impressive, having won 8 out of the 12 meetings against the Korean, including 3 wins at the Superseries Finals. Saina also beat her at the Sudirman Cup earlier this year.
Against the current World No. 14, PV Sindhu, Saina has won the sole encounter, which happened at the India Grand Prix Gold in 2014. Her head-to-head record against Beiwen Zhang of the United States is also 100%, having won both the encounters.
4-0: That's the head-to-head which Saina has against World No. 16 Sayaka Takahashi, whom she most recently beat at the World Championships in the third round of the competition. Against the opponent who she overcame in the opening round of the Japan Open Superseries, Busanan Ongbunmrungpan of Thailand, Saina has a 4-0 head-to-head lead.
Saina’s head-to-head against World No.19 Sayaka Sato is also very good having won 4 out of the 5 encounters and her record against World No.20 Yui Hashimoto is an even 1-1.
So even as we public continue to remain slightly aback over Saina’s loss to Mitani on Thursday, the above stats prove that perhaps it was a one-off for the World No.1 and there isn't as a big a reason for all of us to fear as we might have thought.
