China's Li Xuerui wins badminton singles gold, Nehwal makes India badminton breakthrough

China’s Li Xuerui reaches for the shuttle in the Olympic badminton women’s singles final against compatriot Wang Yihan. Li won 21-15, 21-23, 21-17.

LONDON - Chinese third seed Li Xuerui stunned top-seeded compatriot Wang Yihan 21-15, 21-23, 21-17 on Saturday to win the Olympic Games women’s badminton singles gold.

Wang was in tears on the podium in the same Wembley Arena where she had clinched the world title last year.

“Of course winning the gold medal is an exciting moment, but the glory should not be owned by myself alone but by the team,” said Li.

“Together with my team-mate, we performed quite brilliantly and gave the crowd an exciting match.”

Li’s success was only one of a series of surprises from her.

The woman from Chongqiing was a last-minute choice in the Olympic squad in preference to Wang Shixian, the former world number one, having already becoming an unexpected winner of the All-England Open in March.

From the beginning of the Olympic final there were signs that Li might bring down the favourite.

She was soon 12-7 and 15-8 ahead, moving better than her opponent, and reacting quicker in the flat, mid-court exchanges.

By the time she reached 17-9, with a series of punched clears followed by a tight net shot, which together set up the chance for a winner with a fast drop, it looked as though she might trample all over the world champion.

But Wang worked hard to get back into it, recovering to 15-19 before losing the first game — though with the benefit of hindsight the energy which she expended at this stage may have cost her the match.

Wang also expended much emotional energy saving one match point at 19-20 in the second game, after a long and frantic jabbing rally, and then another at 20-21 with a daring kill after forcing Li to lift the shuttle from mid-court.

The escape gave Wang some momentum and she advanced hopefully to 9-5 in the decider, but she was slowing with the effort, and it was her determination to fight, rather than the familiar power of her attacking overhead game which kept her in it.

Li took seven points in a row, and built a four-point lead before Wang again clawed back the deficit to reach 17-17.

She had little left though with which to counter the varied pressure which was coming from her younger opponent though, and this last-ditch fight-back was as far as she could go.

India’s Saina Nehwal poses with her bronze medal after beating China’s Wang Xin in their bronze medal women’s singles badminton match at the London 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Saina Nehwal became the first Indian badminton player to earn an Olympic medal when world number one Wang Xin retired in tears from their bronze medal play-off.

Wang was leading 21-18, 1-0 when she was forced to quit after twice collapsing to the court with a knee injury with the second time seeing her barely able to stand.

After sitting on the court, she was helped off, and forced to concede the match.

“She was taking on water and asking for the court to be mopped and I could tell she was getting tired,” she said.

“When she sat down I thought it was all part of getting tired, but it wasn’t. And it was very sad what happened.

“But it’s really unbelievable to get a bronze because we have all worked so hard for this. I am very happy to have been able to do this for my country.”

Nehwal’s triumph follows her becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series title on the world circuit in 2009 and the first Indian woman to capture the Commonwealth title at Delhi two years ago.