Saina Nehwal’s aggression and intensity outclassed P V sindhu as she picked up the gold medal in women’s singles at Gold Coast CWG. Saina extends her lead in the head-to-head count 4-1 and won 21-18 23-21 in the high-pressure match that lasted for 56 minute.
Saina continued her good run of form which she picked up in the team events, guiding India to a famous gold in mixed team events, in the absence of PV Sindhu, who was suffering from injury.
The brute force of Sindhu’s smashes was something that Saina found hard to deal with. On the other hand, Sindhu found it tough to adjust to the delicate placement of strokes of Saina, who took the pace off the shuttle by attacking the net.
Saina’s controlled baseline play and ability to control the game edged her past Sindhu, as she went into the break leading 11-6. Sindhu came back strongly after the break and narrowed the gap a bit but the drift-factor affected her strokeplay way more than Saina.
Saina had taken a 20-14 lead but Sindhu closed it to 18-20. However the senior Indian brought her own brute force to fore with a smash targeting Sindhu’s body which was simply unreturnable. Saina claimed the opening game 21-18 in 23 minutes.
The second game followed a similar tangent and despite having the more tired set of legs, Saina was a delight with her trademark angled smashes. But to Sindhu’s credit, she too exhibited a better command on her smashes and improved considerably court-coverage to take a 9-7 lead, which she widened to 13-8 after the break.
For the full house, mostly packed with the diaspora, it was a brilliant Sunday outing as the top two women of Indian badminton slugged it out, displaying an array of strokes.
Sindhu led 19-16 at one stage but a 64-stroke rally to narrow it to 18-19 brought Saina right back and she equalised at 19-19. However, Sindhu edged ahead for a 20-19 lead and a game point.
The see-saw battle continued when Sindhu hit one out to give Saina the equalising point yet again.
This time, it was Saina who got the championship point when Sindhu struck a return out. The lady, who looked the hungrier of the two all through, was surprisingly late in picking one up as Sindhu made it 21-21.
But Saina was back in lead with a cross-court smash that Sindhu just could not reach. Serving for the gold, Saina forced a wide stroke from Sindhu and then let out a scream to celebrate the triumph.
This is Sindhu’s best performance at CWG as she earlier won a bronze in the 2014 Glasgow games. On the other hand, this will be the second gold medal for Saina at CWG, she had earlier won a gold medal in the 2010 Delhi games.
(PTI Feed)
