Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 18 (IANS) India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal faltered after a good start to go down against reigning World Champion Wang Yihan of China 21-18, 13-21, 13-21 in the women’s singles summit clash of the BWF World Superseries Finals in Lizhou, China, Sunday.

World No.4 Saina, however, would be pleased with her performance in the season-ending tournament where she became the first Indian singles player to make it to the final, eventually losing to a player who ended the year with seven titles and the No.1 spot in the rankings.

Saina, who had a 0-3 record against Wang prior to the match, showed promise for her first win over the Chinese after playing a gutsy first game.

Wang bounced back strongly in the second, taking a 18-11 lead in the second courtesy a combination of powerful forehand smashes and perfectly placed drop shots to which Saina had no answer.

The Shanghai-born 23-year-old was in complete control of the decider from point one with unforced errors from Saina’ racket helping her take a 18-10 lead. The Indian was finding it tough to win points on long rallies and whenever she tried to go for broke, it yielded her mixed results.

Saina was in the hunt till she took three straight points to be 6-9 down but her patches of brilliance fell short against the consistency of Yihan, who expectedly wrapped up the match with a blistering forehand smash.

The Hyderabadi had also lost to Wang in the Indonesia Open Superseries final in June and in the quarterfinals of the China Masters in September.

She reached the final in Lizhou after beating Denmark’s Tine Baun in the last four and also topped the group stage where she defeated former World Number One Wang Xin.