Dubai: India’s Saina Nehwal bowed out of the women’s singles at the semi-final stage with a three-set loss to Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in the BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Badminton Finals at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Saturday.
This is the second time on the trot that the two players have met and it has been victory for the Chinese Taipei woman on both occasions. Tai secured a straight sets win in the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open last month and followed it up with another forceful performance by winning 11-21, 21-13, 21-9 before a boisterous weekend crowd.
This will be Tai’s second successive BWF World Superseries final following her 16-21, 21-23 loss to Shixian Wang of China 12 months back.
Facing Tai for the ninth time, Nehwal seemed to be in control in the opening set. Nehwal was up and running with a swift 14-5 lead that she went on to consolidate further to 17-6. But her opponent from Taipei took the next four points to claw back to 17-10 when Nehwal raised her game and took the remaining four points and the set 21-11.
In the second set things turned around with the Taipei woman leading Nehwal 10-4. But the Indian drew level at 10-10 and then allowed the initiative to slip through as Tai once again broke free 16-12 to eventually wrap the set 21-13 to force the deciding third.
Despite being egged on by a largely sub-continental crowd there was little Nehwal could do as Tai retrieved anything and everything to lead 11-3 at the change-over, making the set look like a formality. The 20-year-old finally finished it off with a deft placement at the net to take set and match 21-9.
