Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Saina Nehwal served a warning to the dominant Chinese ahead of next months London Olympics when she won her third Indonesia Open Super Series title after beating World No.3 Xuerui Li in a see-saw final in Jakarta on Sunday. The fifth-seeded Indian,who had won the Thailand Open last week,defeated Chinas Li 13-21,22-20,21-19 in an hour and four minutes to lift her third title of the year. Her first title of 2012 was the Swiss Open.
It was always going to be a tough battle for Saina against an opponent to whom she had lost four times and won just once way back in 2010. Saina conceded four successive points at the start of the first game. She battled back to make it 2-4 but her Chinese opponent maintained a steady lead throughout the first game. The two players engaged in a battle of smashes but Li was superior at the net.
In spite of struggling to execute effective returns in the first game,Saina managed to shift to a higher gear in the second game. However,this was a game in which fortunes fluctuated sharply. An erratic Saina,who led 11-7 and 18-14,lost steam momentarily before saving two championship points at 18-20. In the third,Saina started off strongly by taking a 5-2 lead. At one point she was trailing 10-11 before going par at 13-all and then 14-all and then managing to lead 19-16. However,Saina let slip a championship point before clinching the decisive game.
