P.V. Sindhu won two back-to-back women’s singles bronzes in 2013 and 2014 and now Saina, for the first time, has won a medal other than the bronze.
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Carolina Marin of Spain (R) poses with her gold medal next to runner-up Saina Nehwal of India (L) at the awards ceremony following the women’s singles final at the 2015 World Championships Badminton tournament in Jakarta on August 16, 2015.
Spain’s defending champion Carolina Marin, meanwhile, showed no signs of a recent foot injury as she overcame China’s Wang Shixian, 21-17, 21-19. “It was one of my toughest matches this week as I was playing against the crowd”. Despite Saina’s fearless fight against Carolina, by leading early in the first two sets, she let go off the advantage and ended up at the second best. It was neck to neck from thereon as the rivals levelled it up from 6-6 to 10-10 until at the mid-break Saina took a 11-10 lead. From then on, it was Marin all the way. Sooner Saina lost her steam, that enabled her opponent to bag the next seven points in a row.
“This time too I had to play Wang Yihan, it was nearly like a final”.
Often it is said that head to head records don’t matter much because it is all in the past.
What a rally between Saina and Carolina!
Even before the start of the semifinal encounter, it was clear that Saina’s real challenge was to recover well from the emotional roller-coaster she went through after winning her quarterfinal against long-time nemesis Yihan Wang.
“Most of the points I gave up because of the pressure I was taking”, Nehwal told reporters. Saina should stay patient, construct rallies and work Marin to all four corners of the court. Saina leads 9-5.
Carolina Marin idolizes the legendary Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal. “There was new aggression, goal and drive in her game”. She has emulated such performances on more than one occasion in the past. Saina takes the point in the end. “But, with Saina in the form of her life, she could cause an upset”.
Saina Nehwal created history on Saturday when she defeated an unseeded Lindaweni Fanetri of Indonesia 21-17, 21-17.
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“I always had hard draws and would run into a Chinese in the quarter-final”. By reaching her first final she has also broken this jinx. The Indian rushed on to a net shot to concede a point but she bounced back with a body smash.
