World Superseries Finals: Saina Nehwal storms back into contention

Dubai: Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton’s poster girl, stormed back into contention for a place in the semi-finals at the WBF’s Dubai World Superseries Finals when defeating world number one Carolina Marin from Spain in a rollercoaster three-set Group A match on Thursday.

Nehwal, who capitulated in straight sets to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in her opening match on Wednesday, was a transformed player yesterday, outguessing, out-thinking and outmanoeuvring her rival for a 23-21, 9-21, 21-12 victory.

“I really can’t believe how I played today, considering my performance yesterday,” Nehwal admitted. “I never thought about what strategy or about her strengths and weaknesses. I just went out and played my natural game.

“This is unbelievable, to have beaten her.

“I felt a lot better on court today, compared to yesterday. My foot still hurts but it was not troubling me or affecting my movement. I suppose everything just fell into place today. I was making my shots and at times she wasn’t.”

Nehwal was recording her first victory of the season against Marin, who she lost to at both the All-England and World Championships. It was also only her second career victory over the Spaniard who enjoys a 4-2 dominance over the Indian ace.

Nehwal also credited the hollering ‘Saina Squad’ for helping her to lift her game.

“They won the match for me today, they worked harder than I did,” she said. “When you have that kind of encouragement it really inspires you to play better, try harder. I don’t think I could have done this without them.”

Marina blamed herself for underestimating her opponent.

“I took her lightly today thinking that she was carrying an injury,” said Marin, who has scored seven major wins on the tour this year. “Perhaps I was a bit underprepared as well.

“You need to come into these sort of big matches with a better game plan and I guess that’s where I made a mistake.

“When you have that mentality you don’t play your best badminton and I don’t think I play well enough today. But it’s not over, I’ll go home, rest and hopefully come back stronger tomorrow and then see what happens. Like I said before I’m here to win and that’s what I aim to do.”

Marin players her final Group B round-robin match against Japanese fourth seed Nozomi Okuhara, a 21-11, 21-16 winner over defending champion Tai Tzu Ying from Chinese Taipei, who faces Nehwal.

While Tai Tzu is out of contention for a place in the semi-finals Nozomi can seal her place in the last four if she wins her match to become the only unbeaten player in the Group.

Nehwal and Marin will battle for the second qualifiers berth and a lot will depend on their margin of victory against Nozomi and Tai Tzu respectively.