Jakarta: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal’s impressive run in the Indonesia Masters came to an end on Sunday at the hands of Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who defeated her in straight games in the final to walk away with the title in Jakarta on Sunday.
The 27-year-old Saina enjoyed a terrific run recently where he outclassed her higher-ranked opponents in the form of fellow Indian PV Sindhu in the quarter-final and Thailand’s Ratchanok Itanon in the semi-final. But she couldn’t put together another giant-killing effort as she ended up losing 21-9, 21-13 in a 27-minute clash.
Courtesy this win, Tai now has extended dominance over her in head-to-head clashes where she clearly enjoys a 9-5 advantage. This was the 27-year-old Indian’s first final since her appearance in January, 2017 Malaysian Masters Grand Prix Gold. This win was also Tai’s seventh consecutive win over the world no 12 Saina.
Both the matches were one-sided affairs with Tai living up to her reputation of being the favourite to win the title as she raced to a 10-2 lead early on and never really looked back.
A 43-shot rally ensued between the two when the scoreboard read 12-7 in Ying’s favour and at the end, Saina couldn’t stop Ying from winning the first game, conceding it 21-9.
The next match saw some fightback from the London Olympics bronze medalist as she tried to slower the pace of the match. Coming back from an ankle injury, Saina once failed to answer Ying’s returns and despite saving a couple of match points, Ying won the match at the end.
The World Championship bronze medalist however said that she was happy to have played her first final in a year and that she could have played better.
“I played finals after one year gap. I would like to thank Gopi Sir and the team for the support. I need to work even harder. Happy to be on the podium but have to learn from this match and be ready for the next tournament which is India open in Delhi next week,” she said.