Saina loses to Tai in Denmark Open final
odense — Saina Nehwal went down fighting to Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the women’s singles final of the Denmark Open badminton tournament here on Sunday.
The Indian star battled for almost an hour before going down 13-21, 21-13, 6-21 to the superior Chinese Taipei rival in a marathon match.
Saina was not in her best in the first game as she was overpowered completely. In patches Saina was good but struggled most of the period.
The second game saw a much better outing for the Indian shuttler, thanks to some swift court movements and strong bodyline smashes.
In the second game she corrected all her mistakes which she did in the first game and bagged the game easily.
In the decider, it was all Ying as she did not give Saina space to breath and thrashed her in all departments of the game to clinch the title.
Tzu Ying won the Denmark Open title after a gap of two years. She had last won the tournament in 2016.
This was another defeat in the final for Sania as the Indian had come out second best four times earlier this year — Indonesia Masters, All England Championships, Badminton Asia Championships and in the Jakarta Asian Games.
Saina had earlier on Saturday qualified for women’s singles final of Denmark Open 2018 after beating Gregoria Tunjung of Indonesia. Saina secured an easy win over Tunjung but lost to Tai. —