Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will lose her world no. 1 ranking after her gallant fight against Olympic champion li Xuerui in the semifinals ended in heartbreak at the USD $ 500,000 Malaysia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament, here on Saturday. World number one Saina squandered a one-game advantage as she lost 21-13, 17-21, 20-22 to world number three li in a gruelling semifinal that lasted one hour and eight minutes at Putra Stadium.
Saina, who won the India Open Super Series last week, once again failed to come good against Xuerui, who has now beaten the Indian nine times in 11 meetings. The girl from Hyderabad, who has been on a rampaging run ever since winning the China Open last year, played out of her skin in a match where fortunes fluctuated too often but in the end it was li, who emerged victorious. Saina became the world no. 1 for her exploits at the India Open triumph last week and a semifinal finish here will give her 7700 points but li reaching the finals means the Chinese will regain her no 1 ranking. Saina, who had beaten li only on two occasions at the 2010 Singapore Open and 2012 Indonesia Open, started the match on a confident note as she broke off at 6-6 to gradually increase the lead with straight bursts of points.
The newly crowned World No.1 started in perfect fashion to clinch the first game in dominating style. Though the Chinese matched Saina’s shots till 6-all, the Hyderabadi stamped her authority to take flight and quickly seal the first game. The Chinese tried to reduce the gap but Saina kept her tosses as accurate as possible as they landed just on the baseline. Soon the Indian pocketed the game comfortably to lead 1-0. The second game was a close contest as lead changed hands too often right from the start after Saina had a narrow 3-1 advantage. After changing to the fast side of the court, Saina found the going tough as li clawed back quickly and was neck and neck till 10-10, before managing to grab three points at 18-17 to bounce back.
The third game was an even more hotly contested one. Saina held the advantage at 12-17 but the former World No.1 won five straight points to close the gap. Thereon, both shuttlers did not allow the other more than a point’s difference. But at 20-all, the most crucial point of the match, Xuerui showed the killer attitude to smash the next two points and enter the final. Xuerui will take on reigning World Champion Carolina Marin in the final, who beat second seeded Chinese Shixian Wang 21-17, 24-22 in the other semi-final. Going into the final on Sunday, Xuerui leads 3-1 in the head-to-head record against Carolina. In the men’s singles competition, China’s five-time World champion lin Dan set up a summit clash with compatriot and World No.1 Chen long.
While two-time Olympic champion Dan quelled a strong challenge from World No.2 Jan O Jorgensen before prevailing 14-21, 21-19, 21-17 in an hour and 19 minutes, reigning World champion long disposed of compatriot Wang Zhengming 21-18, 21-16 in just 36 minutes. Ahead of the final, Dan, 31, has a 7-1 lead in career meetings over the 26-year-old long.