Loss leaves Ratchanok in tight corner
Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon suffered a setback in the World Superseries Finals in Dubai yesterday when she blew a one-game lead to go down 2-1 to Chinese Wang Yihan in her second Group B match.
Despite her 21-19, 19-21, 11-21 loss to Wang Yihan in the clash of two former world champions, Ratchanok is still in with a chance of progressing to the semi-finals of the season-ending tournament.
The Thai ace, whose winless record against Wang Yihan dropped to 11 losses yesterday, faces another Chinese Wang Shixian, a former world No.1, in a mustwin clash today.
Reigning Asian champion Ratchanok had edged Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea 2-1 on Wednesday, when Wang Shixian had lost to Wang Yihan by the same margin.
Wang Shixian resurrected her chances with a 21-19, 14-21, 21-19 victory over Sung yesterday.
With Wang Yihan already through and Sung out of contention, second semi-final spot from Group B will be claimed by the winner of today’s last first-round clash between Ratchanok and Wang Shixian.
Earlier on Wednesday, Saina Nehwal, who became the first Indian woman to claim the world No.1 spot earlier in the year, looked certain to end her 2015 season with an early departure from the Dubai tournament.
Nehwal’s 21-14, 21-6 loss to Nozomi Okuhara, the lively world No.9 from Japan, was ominous enough, but her explanation for the one-sidedness of the loss made it seem as if her season is all but over.
Nehwal admitted she has not been able to train since injuring an Achilles tendon three weeks ago, and her movement was just not light enough or enduring enough against Okuhara who, as she said, “gets everything back”.
Worse still Nehwal is in a group containing the favourite, Carolina Marin of Spain, and title-holder Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan.
Both of them look in decent shape, and both of them she would probably have to beat to be able to qualify for the semi-finals.
Earlier Marin had to come from behind in the first game before starting impressively with a 21-16, 21-9 win over Tai, and looks quite capable of adding the tour’s flagship title to the world, All-England and four other Superseries titles she has won this year.
Men’s world champion, Chen Long of China, began his defence of the title with contributions on and off court which helped make up for the absence of his legendary compatriot Lin Dan.
Chen’s was a composed and versatile performance in a 21-13, 21-13 victory over another Chinese teammate, Tian Houwei.