Mumbai: As Hong Kong Open paves its way towards the end, India faced a bitter sweet fortune on Friday with both Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu facing one of their toughest matches in the series so far.
On one hand where Saina couldn’t overcome her opponent Cheung Ngan Yi and got out of the tournament in Quarter finals at the same time on the other side, Sindhu managed to defeat Liang Xiayou and made it to the semi finals of the tournament.
The match between Nehwal and Ngan Yi was a long one. The Indian ace gave a tough competition with the final score of 8-21, 21-18, 19-21. Saina had a laid back start and lost her first game 8-21. However in the second game she picked up her pace and went ahead to win it by 21-18. The third game was a really tough one for Saina, she trailed behind with 11-18 due to her errors but did not give up. Fighting back hard, she was able to come to 19-20 but lost the game with the winning stroke of Ngan Yi with the final score of 19-21.
PV Sindhu had a very tough and tiring match with Liang Xiayou which lasted for 78 minutes as both of them were determined on winning. In the start of the first game, Sindhu faced a poor opponent, but soon Xiayou picked up pace and had put pressure on Sindhu. It was the four consecutive points that Sindhu was able to get which paved the way for her win with the score 21-17. The second set was a rather tough one for both women. Both players played with aggression and the scores were 10-10. The game got more interesting when the scores levelled at 21-21. An error on the part of Sindhu cost her the game 21-23. In the third set however things took a little unfortunate turn and Xiayou took a lead of six points 9-15. But Sindhu refused to give up and won five consecutive points to cover up the gap. At a point the scored levelled at 18-18 and it could have been anyone’s game. But Sindhu fought hard and went on to win the game at 21-18 and thus winning the match.
The win paved the way for Sindhu to move to number nine in the world rankings and Saina’s loss cost her to slide down to number 11.
After the win, Sindhu looked quite confident and told the media, “This is only the start for me…There’s more to come.”
On the other hand, Saina tried to explain the pressure a successful athlete has to face in India, “It’s quite a huge burden…The Indian public gets very much attached to you when you accomplish something great and if you lose they are going to criticise you in a bad way.”
She further added, “But if you win, you are everywhere.”
With Saina out of the tournament, the possibility of two Indian ladies competing against each other can no more become a reality for the audiences who wanted to see the clash.