Articles by "Saina Nehwal"
Odense (Denmark), Oct 15 (PTI) : Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will lead a strong Indian challenge at the Denmark Open badminton tournament which gets underway here on Tuesday.
While Sindhu has been seeded third in the event, world no.11 Saina is unseeded here.Sindhu will take on USA's Beiwen Zhang in the opening round of the women's singles. Saina, on the other hand, will be up against Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong.In men's singles competition, world no.6 Kidambi Srikanth will be India's best bet and has been seeded seventh in the tournament.Srikanth will face Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark in the opening round, while B Sai Praneeth will play Huang Yuxiang of China.However, it will be a difficult opening encounter for another Indian, Sameer Verma, as he will square off against third seed Shi Yuqi of China.The other Indian in fray, HS Prannoy also faces a tough first round match as he will be up against sixth seed Son Wan Ho of Korea.Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who lost his passport at Amsterdam and sought the Indian government's help on Friday, however doesn't feature in the men's singles draw.In men's doubles, the Indian pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy will take on local hope Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the opening round.Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will face the Korean combination of Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yujung in the first round of the mixed doubles competition.Ponappa will pair up with N Sikki Reddy and play the American duo of Ariel Lee and Sydney Lee in the opening round of the women's doubles event.
Jakarta, Aug 27 : Olympic medallist PV Sindhu yet again finished second-best in a major final but grabbed a historic individual silver medal at the Asian Games after losing the women's singles title clash to world number one Tai Tzu-Ying here today.
No Indian had ever reached the final of a singles event at the Asian Games before the 23-year-old from Hyderabad, who lost 13-21 16-21 to Chinese Taipei's Tai in just 34 minutes.
It is the first time that India has won two individual medals at the Asian Games with Saina Nehwal clinching a bronze earlier. Saina was also conquered by Tai in the semifinals.
It was Sindhu's third defeat in a big final this year, having lost the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games title clash to Saina Nehwal and the World Championship summit clash to Spain's Carolina Marin.
The Rio Olympic silver medallist had also lost the finals at India Open (to Beiwen Zhang) and Thailand Open (to Nozomi Okuhara) this year.
Having lost previous five encounters to Tai, world number three Sindhu needed to punch above her weight to tackle the Chinese Taipei ace.
Tai was in complete control from the beginning, taking the first five points of the match, with her trademark sharp returns.
Sindhu had no option but to attack. She returned harder to reduce the deficit to 4-6 but Tai consistently outsmarted Sindhu, using the deft drop shots very effectively.
The Taipei player was deceptive in her strokes and pulled away with a 17-10 lead.
She would change the angle and direction of the stroke very easily, making it difficult for Sindhu to anticipate and find appropriate returns. The first game was over in just 16 minutes.
To negate Tai's strong net game, Sindhu tried to push her back to the baseline in the second game. It got her points but she lost too many points due to unforced errors as some of the shots sailed over the lines.
The strategy could have been more effective if she had not missed drop shots after pinning Tai to baseline.
Initially, Sindhu was tied with Tai at 4-4 but as the game wore on, the Taipei shuttler continued to tighten her grip over the contest. An un-returnable smash put her ahead 15-10.
It was over soon with Tai earning a match point with Sindhu netting a shuttle at 15-19.
Sindhu saved the first match point with a smash winner on Tai's backhand. The Taipei ace sealed it with a drop shot winner.PTI
Jakarta, Aug 27: Top Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal had to be content with a bronze medal after suffering her 10th straight defeat to world number one Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the women's singles semifinals of the 18th Asian Games, here today.
World number 10 and Olympic medallist Saina played with good intensity but lost 17-21 14-21 to a superior Tzu Ying, who stood out with her court coverage and retrieving in the 36-minute match.
Coming into this match, Saina had lost her last nine matches against Tzu Ying, including three in the 2018 season.
Both Saina and PV Sindhu were assured of at least bronze medals after progressing to the semifinals.
Both Saina and Tzu Ying attacked each other's backhand but it was the Chinese Taipei player who scored more points. She raced to a 4-1 lead in the opening game.
Saina changed her strategy a bit by hitting more deep returns and then looked for drop shots. It worked for her and soon it was 8-8.
Tzu Ying though kept spraying smashes on Saina's backhand and took the first break with a narrow 11-10 lead.
The Chinese Taipei shuttler took four straight points to zoom to a 15-10 cushion, leaving Saina to play the catch up game.
Tactically sound and supremely fit Tzu Ying retrieved almost everything thrown at her.
At 19-16, Tzu Ying hit another smash on Saina's backhand to grab her first game point and converted it when the Indian sailed over the baseline.
In the second game also, Saina was again playing the catch up game. Tzu Ying never looked like losing control though Saina tried hard to breach her rival's defense.
Saina led for the first time in the match when Tzu Ying left a shuttle and it fell in at 12-12. A net chord also helped Saina take a point but Tzu Ying reclaimed lead on an unforced error from Saina.
Tzu Ying cruised to win from there with Saina sending a backhand wide. (PTI)
