Saina wins Hong Kong Open Super Series

New Delhi, Dec 12 (PTI) Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal
rallied to register a scintilliating three-game victory over
Shixian Wang of China to clinch her third Super Series title
of the year at the Hong Kong Open in Wanchai Sunday.
The 20-year-old Indian capped her career's fourth Super
Series title triumph with a 15-21 21-16 21-17 win over the
third seed Chinese in a gruelling one hour and 11 minutes
summit clash at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.
The girl from Hyderabad won back-to-back titles -- Indian
Open Grand Prix, Singapore Open Super Series and defended the
Indonesian Super Series -- before clinching the gold medal in
the Commonwealth Games in October here.
Saina, who dropped to fourth in the world rankings, is
likely to inch closer to the number one spot with this
resounding victory.
Saina played a tactical game after she lost the first
game and clawed her way back with some fast-paced rallies and
powerful smashes to outwit the Chinese world number five.
In the second game, Saina jumped to 11-5 from 5-5 but
Shixian narrowed the gap to 11-10 before the gutsy Indian
surged ahead to 19-11 by registering seven straight points.
But Saina missed a couple of points on the baseline and
nets to allow Shixian close the gap to 19-16. But with the
Chinese hitting the shuttle out, Saina was back into the
match.
In the edge-of-the-seat decider, Saina and Shixian were
locked in a gruelling battle and didn't concede an inch to
each other.
The Chinese kept pushing the shuttle at the back court
but Saina was in no mood to relent as she retrieved
everything and sent down some powerful cross court smashes to
open up a 5-0 lead.
But a couple of misjudgements on the baseline allowed
Shixian to narrow the gap. The Chinese started playing fast
rallies and caught Saina at the nets to make it 6-7 but a
series of unforced errors and a sensational cross court smash
saw Saina change sides with an 11-9 lead.
Back into her winning side of the court, Saina involved
her rival in long rallies and waited for Shixian to make
mistakes.
A controversial baseline call gave Shixian a lead of
14-13 but Saina didn't give up and wrested the lead at 15-14,
before being locked at 16-16.
From here on, Saina walked away with a three-point
cushion with a smash, a net dribble and round-the-head drop to
move to 19-16. Shixian gained another point with a smash to
make it 19-17.
But Saina soon achieved the match point with another
smash that floored Shixian and with the Chinese hitting the
shuttle out, Saina threw her racquet to the audience in
celebration. PTI ATK
SMT