Saina goes down fighting

It was a wrap on her 2008 calendar, and it ended with Saina Nehwal’s 15-21, 21-14, 21-16 loss to Chen Wang of Hong Kong. But having reached the last-four of the World Super Series Masters Finals, the Indian world No 10 is glad that she gave her best in her 42-minute defeat, with a blitz start that even threatened an upset as she kept her lead to win the first game.

But too tired to sustain the momentum — she was playing her third high-intensity game in two days — the 18-year-old couldn’t get herself to prevail over her more experienced rival as she trailed on points throughout the next two games. “I was too tired and couldn’t control my errors or counter when she suddenly started smashing. I tired out during the long rallies,” she said. Saina was happy, nevertheless, with her three days in Malaysia where she beat two top players — Pi Hongyan and Mew Choo Wong — in back-to-back matches on Friday and stretched the world No 6 from Hong Kong to another three-setter, after a lowly first day when she had submitted to Tine Rasmussen.

“Overall I am very happy with my performance. If I can beat two top players in a single day, I know I will be able to beat anyone now. It has given me a lot of confidence and made me more focused on next year’s tournaments,” she said of the season which restarts with the Malaysian Super Series and the Korean Super Series in January.

“I still need to work a lot on stamina, because while I could match Chen Wang’s strokes, and inched closer at 13-14 in the third game, I couldn’t manage to play those shots in the deciding moments,” she added.