Saina Nehwal must be haunted by the strokes of Tai Tzu Ying even in her dreams. The 28-year-old Indian gives her all, pushes her physical limits, comes up with new strategies but still ends up on the losing side against the world number one.
Friday was no different for the Commonwealth Games gold medallist as Nehwal did all she can to keep Tai pinned to the back line despite not being in peak fitness. But every time she harboured hopes of taking the upper hand, the Chinese Taipei shuttler would come up with couple of strokes that would just leave the Indian stranded — and jaws dropped around the world.
Nehwal eventually lost the All England badminton championship quarterfinal 21-15, 21-19 in 37 minutes, her 13th straight defeat against Tai. This means that Nehwal hasn’t defeated the two-time defending champion for six years now and every defeat would have left her wondering what else could have been done.
Fast start from World No 1
Nehwal clearly needed time to get a hang of herself after Tai started the match in her trademark brisk manner, keeping the points short and opened up a 11-3 lead in the opening game.
But the mid-game interval gave the Indian time to re-think her strategy and she began pushing her younger opponent further back in the court with quality tosses and won eight of the nine points from 4-13 down to close the gap.
Tai broke that streak with a soft drop against the run of play and then raced to a game point with a service-return-winner routine twice in succession. Nehwal did save three game points but there was just too big a gap to bridge for the Indian.
At the change of ends, Nehwal’s coach and husband Parupalli Kashyap urged her to not lose belief and keep pushing and she did put in that effort despite the fitness worries due to a bout of diarrehoea before the start of the tournament.
This meant that Tai ended up making mistakes while looking for quick points. Nehwal started to gain confidence as she led 8-4 and then 12-8. But a net lift low on her backhand which just about fell on the other side of the court at 9-5 just showed the Chinese Taipei shuttler’s class and even the Indian could do nothing but smile in disbelief.
Nehwal, however, did not allow her intensity to drop and kept playing the shuttle high in the air to avoid allowing Tai getting over the shuttle and show her artistry.
But Tai showed that she can find a way to counter that game plan in a 36 shot rally – one of the rare long rallies in the match – as she suddenly raised the tempo and caught Nehwal by surprise.
She then raced to a 16-19 lead before the Indian managed to fight back by winning three points with deep lifts and pushes. But if Nehwal felt that she had a chance to force a decider, Tai once again showed who was the boss as she came up with two quality smashes to end the contest in the blink of an eye and stay on course for a hat-trick of All England titles.
For Nehwal, as her wry smiles on more than occasion showed, it was another case of wondering what more she can do to break the Tai Tzu Ying barrier.
