Saina Nehwal loses in Indonesia Masters women singles final as her impressive run at the tournament finally comes to an end. The Indian shuttler suffered her seventh straight defeat to world no.1 Tai Tzu Ying, going down in the summit clash of the USD 350,000 Indonesia Masters on Sunday.
Read: Resurgent Saina ride on the spirited performance to reach the finals of Indonesia Master.
Tzu Ying won 21-9, 21-13 and forced Nehwal to settle for a silver medal in the match that lasted 27 minutes. Nehwal was making her first appearance in the final of a tournament in over a year. Her last foray in the final of a tournament came back in January, 2017, when she won the Malaysian Masters Grand Prix Gold.
Played finals after one year of gap at the #IndonesiaMastersSuper500 .. Would like to thank Gopi Sir and the team for the support .. Need to work even harder ?? pic.twitter.com/A1Gr8x6Y2R
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) January 28, 2018
Tai Tzu has now defeated the former world No.1 Indian nine times in their last 10 meetings. Saina had enjoyed early success against the Taiwanese till 2011 but the Indian has beaten her only once at the 2013 Swiss Open ever since.
The Taiwanese player started in a convincing fashion and went into the break leading 11-3. Saina tried to lessen the deficit, but Tai paved her way ahead 12-7.
At 7-12, the duo engaged in an epic 43-shot rally which ended with Saina hitting out. She then lost a video referral to concede another point as Tai Tzu reached 14-7.
Both of them erred with their returns and went wide as the score read 16-8.
Saina again erred with her smash and then a magical return from the back of the court by Tai Tzu took her to 18-9. She then produced a tight net return to move to game point and unleashed a backhand return which Saina couldn’t negotiate to seal the opening game.
Tai continued her domination in the second game and went to the break 11-5, with a healthy lead to her name.
Saina grabbed points when the Taiwanese shuttler missed the line with her returns to move to 4-9. Another rally ensued and Saina tried to dictate the pace but went long again.
Another weak return went wide for Saina, giving Tai Tzu an advantage of 11-5 at the break.
Saina tried to high serve next and it worked as Tai Tzu hit long. But the Indian made a service error and also hit out again to allow her opponent to lead 16-9.
Saina then produced a superb cross-court return but two long shots by her handed 10 match points to Tai Tzu. The Indian saved two but eventually a long shot helped Tai Tzu to walk away with the crown.
{With PTI inputs}
Saina Nehwal loses in Indonesia Masters
Saina Nehwal loses in Indonesia Masters
