Second-seeded Saina Nehwal’s title defense at the $300,000 Yonex Sunrise India Open Superseries in New Delhi came to a grinding halt as she lost a hard-fought semi-final to the reigning Olympic gold medallist Li Xuerui, 22-20, 17-21, 21-19. The contest lasted a marathon 1 hour 12 minutes.
This was Saina’s 11th loss to the Chinese in 13 career meetings.
It was the Indian girl who built leads in each of the three games before the third-seeded Chinese veteran made a comeback to seal her place in the final. Li goes on to meet the fourth seed and last year’s runner-up Ratchanok Intanon, who prevailed 21-8, 21-11 over Korea’s Bae Yeon Ju in the other semi-final in just 36 minutes.
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First game
Long rallies marked the start of the match as Saina, buoyed by a raucous crowd at the Siri Fort Stadium, kept on drawing errors from her Chinese rival. She quickly jumped out to a 4-1 and then a 9-5 lead. Even though the World No. 2 reduced the deficit, it was the local hope who had an 11-8 advantage at the mid-game interval.
An invigorated Li came back after the break to make Saina move all over the court and that paid off. The score soon got levelled at 11-11 and then 13-13 before Li’s immaculate smashes took the centre stage.
After she nudged ahead to 15-13, Saina did the hard work to come back and make it 17-17 with a flurry of angular returns. But it was once again Li’s breathtaking angular smashes that took over as she saved a game point to seal the opening game 22-20.
Second game
In a contrast to the first game, the second one began with fast-paced and short points. Saina looked doubly motivated while her nemesis seemed jaded and hit tired shots. The result was for all to see as Nehwal quickly surged to an 11-6 lead.
But never count Li Xuerui out! She soon started building some momentum with six points on the trot before the Indian stopped the rot with some wonderful attacking play. That startled the Chinese whose mounting errors helped Saina take the second game 21-17.
Third game
Once more, the defending champion was in cruise control and began the decider with a confident display. At half-time, Saina had the clear advantage of 11-7 much to the delight of the spectators.
However, the Olympic champion refused to be intimidated and fought back. With Nehwal leading 17-14, Li’s clever deception worked wonders and brought her back into contention. The game was soon back on level terms at 18-18.
In the last few tense seconds of the match, the calm Chinese superstar hit a brilliant smash that just caught the line and also awarded her a match point at 20-19. It did not take her long to wrap it up and send the entire stadium into a stunned silence as Saina’s return found the net in the very next point.
