Saina Nehwal may have sealed the number one spot in the world rankings on Saturday itself but she will have to wait a few days for the results to be made official on the BWF website. As such Nehwal might have felt the need to ensure she has a title of some sort to go along with the statistical achievement. It truly was a coronation of sorts as Nehwal beat former World Champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-16 21-14 to claim her maiden India Open Super Series title. Nehwal had never made it past the quarterfinal stage in four previous attempts.
Nehwal would not have been expecting an easy win against an opponent who had proven a tricky challenge in the past. Nehwal has a 5-3 record against the Thai and had won the last time the two had played in May, last year, but the Thai was recovering from injury back then. Since then though, Ratchanok has managed to find a bit of form and had reached the final after beating the defending World and All England champion Carolina Marin in the semifinals.
It was however a completely dominant performance from Nehwal who was off the court in 49 minutes. Making up with deception at the net what she lacks in power, Ratchanok is also able to wrong foot her opponents from the back court from where she picks them off with drop shots. However the 84-minute match with Marin had clearly taken a toll on the Thai. Nehwal admitted that her opponent seemed slow after her semifinal while Ratchanok said her body was ‘tired’.
With Nehwal’s own movements quick and her shots accurate, frankly the Thai had little chance.
The first few points of the match saw Ratchanok having to corkscrew her body as she attempted to make clears from the back of the court. She was obviously having trouble picking the variations in Nehwals overhead clears. She wasn’t moving quickly enough to get behind the shuttle and was forced into making errors. Nehwal stormed off to a 4-0 lead off which three points were shots that found the net from the Thai.
Uncertain at the back, Ratchanok moved to the net and won her first point with a cross court net shot that barely cleared the barrier. However that point would be an exception as Nehwal routinely got early into position to clear her shots or return them with net shots of her own. With what were expected to be routine winners finding their way back at her, the Thai was getting frustrated.
“The way I was moving today, I was picking all her tricky strokes and she was not liking it, so she made a lot continued…
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