Saina Nehwal misses final shuttle

Saina Nehwal misses final shuttle

Saina Nehwal of India plays a return shot to Intanon Ratchanok of Thailand during the semifinal of All-England Championship in Birmingham, England on Saturday. 

BIRMINGHAM: Olympic bronze medallistSaina Nehwal, playing with a strapped right knee, crashed out of the All-England Championship on Saturday. She was outplayed by rising badminton star Thailand's Ratchanok Inthanon in the semifinals.

The billion-plus dream of seeing the first Indian woman lift the coveted championship was dashed after world No. 3 Saina lost to the eight-seeded Thai girl in straight games 21-15, 21-19 at the National Indoor Arena.

Ratchanok became the first women's singles player from Thailand to reach an All-England final and the first of either sex from her country in 50 years. This was the 18-year-old's third career win in seven career meetings with Saina.

Sweat streaming down her brow and panting for breath, an elated Ratchanok told TOI after the match that it was her attacking game that got the better of an injured Saina.

Ratchanok said: "Saina was slow on her lifts. Her knee injury made it easier for me." Ratchanok who looked aggressive from the start, added: "Last year, I crashed out of the Championship in the second round. Today, I played a really good game. I wouldn't have been very disappointed if I had lost to Saina."

Ratchanok however admitted that she felt tired in the middle of the second game, which led her to make some unforced errors.

"I just wanted to hold my serve. I was getting tired and was making unforced errors. However the mistake in judgement that Saina made to gift me the match point gave me fresh motivation," Ratchanok who took away the match with the help of some exquisite backhand sliced smashes and drops at crucial junctures said.

Though Saina did manage to take advantage of Ratchanok's depleting stamina taking the score from 15-18 to 18-19, India's ace shuttler could not recover from the error of judgement that made her let go of a lofty heave from Ratchanok, anticipating that it would be going out.

Saina set out to contain and to rally. Her state of mind was revealed in one disoriented moment - at 15-18 down she unaccountably let a high serve drop. At the last moment she changed her mind and tried a panicky swipe, but the return only set up an easy kill for Ratchanok.

That however wasn't the first time Saina had made such an error in the 45-minute long game. Ratchanok looked a much better player on the day with Saina making repeated mistakes.

Saina couldn't have thought of a better birthday gift (March 17) for herself that the coveted crown which has earlier been won by only two Indians — Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001). However, the Hyderabad girl who had first reached the All England semifinals in 2010 faltered once again.

Despite a heavy contingent of Saina's Indian fans cheering her with a deafening roar every time she won a point, Saina looked out of sorts
.