If there was any doubt in anybody’s mind about whether Saina Nehwal would be able to challenge the Chinese hegemony at the London Olympics, the 22-year-old gave a fitting reply to everyone with her maiden Super Series Premier title at the Indonesia Open in Jakarta on Sunday.
The world number five, who had won the Thailand Grand Prix Gold last week, saved two match points before ending Li Xuerui of China’s 30 match unbeaten run to win 13-21, 22-20, 21-19 in one hour four minutes to pocket 11000 ranking points and $48750 as prize money.
This was Saina’s third Indonesian title in four years. However, the earlier two in 2009 and 2010 came when the tournament had not been upgraded to Premier level.
While there was no doubting Saina’s ability to challenge Xuerui, the real question was whether the Commonwealth Games Gold medallist had enough fuel in her tank to play yet another long encounter against a supremely fit opponent.
The world number five started sluggishly and before she could get into any rhythm, Xuerui had already pocketed the first game.
Saina began the second game with much more confidence and began playing her drops and flat tosses effectively. She raced to 18-14 lead before a flurry of errors allowed Xuerui to earn two match points. But the Indian was not ready to give up and preyed on the nerves of her opponent to claim the next four points and force the match into the decider.
The fifth seed kept her nose ahead in the decider throughout and could not hide her jubilation when Xuerui hit the shuttle in the net to hand her the crown.
Saina’s road to title
First round: bt Sayaka Sato (Japan) 21-12, 14-21, 21-17Second round: bt Aprilla Yuswandari (Indonesia) 21-17, 14-21, 21-13
Quarterfinals: bt Shixian Wang (China) 21-17, 14-21, 21-13
Semifinals: bt Ji Hyun Sung (Korea) 22-20, 21-18
Final: bt Li Xuerui (China) 13-21, 22-20, 21-19
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