Saina loses to Xin Wang in Malaysian Open Grand Prix final (Lead)

May 8th, 2011 - 7:47 pm ICT by IANS  

New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) India’s Saina Nehwal went down to China’s Xin Wang 21-13, 8-21, 14-21 in the women’s singles final of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold at Alor Setar
Sunday.

Top seeded and World No.4 Saina gave a tough challenge to second seeded and World No. 3 Xin but lost in 48 minutes.

It was the third time that Xin, the Guangzhou Asian Games gold medal winner, got the better of the Indian and all her three wins came in Malaysia.

Saina, who had a disappointing first round exit in the India Open Super Series last week, gave a strong performance and beat World Champion Lin Wang in the quarterfinal.

Saina opened a 7-3 lead in the first game and pressed home the advantage.

Xin came back strongly in the second game and reeled off seven points from 9-7 to take it beyond Saina.

The decider was fiercely contested with both players breathing down on each other’s necks. Xin had the initial advantage when she led 5-2 and then consolidated it to 12-8, but Saina crawled back in the match. The Indian drew level at 13-13, before Xin stepped up and logged seven straight points from 14-14 to win the title.

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