First thing first — Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap were never expected to win against China’s Yihan Wang and lee Chong Wei, respectively in the women’s and men’s quarterfinals of the 17th Asian Games here on Friday.
Wang is currently No 3 in the world while Wei is at the top in men’s rankings. And they played like the champions giving Indians a through thrashing at the Gyeyang Gymnasium.
Though Nehwal managed to win the first set 21-18 after trailing 11-15 but during that first set she completely exhausted herself and when 2012 Olympic silver medallist Wang picked up her rhythm, the Indian didn’t have any clue as to what she should do. The Chinese won the next two sets 21-9, 21-7 to seal the game.
Wang, against whom Saina had just one win in nine matches, was brutal in her attempt to make a comeback after going down in the first set. She was simply too good for Saina as she could not handle the varied stroke-making of the Chinese.
Saina shifted her base from home town Hyderabad to Bangalore to train at the Prakash Padukone Academy under Vimal Kumar. She wanted to change her game and become more versatile. She showed glimpses of her versatile stroke-making in the first set but looked like struggling in the physical fitness department.
The 2012 Olympic bronze medallist found struggling against the physical game of Wang, who proved to be too quick for Saina.
The 26-year-old Chinese posed difficult questions in front of Saina with her superb net play and smashes.
The Chinese was so quick that it seemed she knew Saina’s every move even before the Hyderabadi shuttler played it.
later during the media interaction Saina accepted that she was lacking in physical fitness. "The first game was pretty long and I started really well. I got tired and she was tired too. I tried to relax a bit in the second game and that's where I lost my momentum.”
Saina said she would continue to train under Vimal Kumar at Bangalore post the Games. "I have been training for just three weeks to improve my movement and would train there again.”
In the men’s singles, Kashyap looked like a lamb locked in a with a tiger. He just seemed to be doing the formality of appearing for the match. Rest of the action was controlled by the world No 1 Wei. Two-time Olympic silver medallist from Malaysian too didn’t stretch his ordeal and finished the game 21-12, 21-11 in just 34 minutes.
Kashyap’s compatriot Kidambi Srikanth, however, put up a good fight against fifth seed South Korean Son Wanho but lost after three hard-fought sets by 21-19, 11-21, 18-21.
It ended India’s challenge in the singles events as P V Sindhu had also lost her first-round match on Thursday.
In the men’s doubles match, Manu Attri and Sikki Reddy also fought well against Singapore’s pair of Vanessa Neo and Danny Bawa before losing 18-21, 21-23, 15-21.