Saina lifts Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal got a shot in the arm ahead of next
month's Olympics as she lifted the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold title
after rallying to beat Thailand's Ratchanok Inthanon in the final of the
event in Bangkok on Sunday. The 22-year-old world number five Indian
beat Inthanon 19-21 21-15 21-10 at the C U Sport Complex in Bangkok for
her second title of the year after the Swiss Open win in March. The win
will come as a massive boost to Saina's confidence ahead of Olympics in
July-August. The top seeded Indian was scratchy to start with but drew
from her experience and superb maneuvering at the net to beat her
second-seeded 17-year-old rival. Although it was a see-saw battle to
start with, Inthanon's energy and fabulous baseline play stood out. The
smash winner, which is Saina's stock shot, was coming out more
frequently from the Thai's racquet who seemed to revel amid the partisan
crowd's thunderous cheering. Inthanon, ranked 11th in the world,
grabbed a 10-7 lead after Saina's attempted smash landed outside the
court and the teenager, to whom Saina had lost in the Sudirman Cup last
year, made it 16-10 in no time. At that point, Saina was struggling to
match up to the Thai's sheer athleticism and swiftness on the court. In
fact, most of the points that Saina notched up during the game were
courtesy the errors committed by Inthanon instead of standout shots by
the Indian. The gap kept widening in favour of the Thai, whose
spectacular speed in covering all ends on the court was commendable.
Down 12-19, Saina staged a recovery of sorts making it 17-19 as Inthanon
had an attack of nerves which led her to commit a few unforced errors.
She ended up wasting a game point by stroking one into the net but egged
on by a vocal coach and vociferous home supporters, she managed to
clinch the game on Saina's serve. Saina was clearly the better of the
two at net but it was Inthanon's seven smash winners against the
Indian's one which made the decisive difference in the game. The change
of ends in the second game also brought with it a change in fortunes as
Saina took the lead by drawing Inthanon to the net and forcing her to
commit mistakes. The Indian took a 8-3 lead with four net winners as
Inthanon struggled to adjust the pace of her shots from close range. In
all, Saina managed 12 net winners in this game against Inthanon's three.
Inthanon's energy that was so visible in the opening game seemed
lacking in the second but Saina too deserved credit for adapting to the
pace of the game, in fact slowing it down much to the Thai's discomfort.
The baseline smashes that were flowing smoothly from Inthanon's racquet
in the first game were landing on the net in the second even as Saina
regained her touch to come up with some aggressive strokes to take a
16-12 lead at one stage. But the Thai was in mood to give up without a
fight and narrowed the gap to 15-17 with her fifth smash winner of the
game. However, Saina drew from her experience to reel off four
consecutive points to clinch the game and equalise in the match. Saina
was quick off the blocks in the deciding game and took a 3-0 lead and
was up 11-4 in no time thanks mainly to Inthanon's erratic play.
Inthanon's net game was not the strongest but even from the baseline,
the teenager was unable to bring out the sheer pace which had flummoxed
Saina in the opening game. Changing her racquet could not make the
difference that Inthanon had been hoping for as Saina took a formidable
17-7 lead once again with her superior net play which fetched her eight
points against the local favourite's three at that stage. Leading 17-10,
Saina came up with one of her trademark smash winners and let out a
scream before notching up four successive points to clinch the title.
National coach Pullela Gopichand lauded Saina's performance and said she
remained positive despite being down to start with. "Saina started off
slowly. Actually Inthanon was playing some very hard smashes in the
initial part of the first game but Saina almost caught up with her and
lost very closely," Gopichand told agency from Bangkok. "But in the
second game, she was confident and opened up a good lead and maintained
that till the end. In the third game, she dominated throughout. Saina
played the kind of game which was important because, she played lot of
net dribbles and got points from the net," he explained. Gopichand said
the title has lifted Saina's spirits and she would be aiming to continue
the form in next week's Indonesia Open. "It is a very good victory and a
very important one going into the next tournament which is in
Indonesia. Hopefully, she will do well there and after that we will have
five weeks of training for the Olympics, so overall a good victory for
Saina," he said
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