Indian ace beats Ratchanok as eves thrash Thailand
The feeling of relief was visible on Saina Nehwal’s face on Tuesday. It emanated from the fact that she had just defeated world champion Ratchanok Intanon and lead the Indian women’s team to the top of their group as they beat Thailand in the Uber Cup at the Siri Fort Sports Complex, here.
22-20, 21-14 was the scoreline and a win of this proportion, one coming after a long time, would have surely done a lot of good to her confidence. Just one tournament win — at the Syed Modi Grand Prix — in 15 months and concerns over her fitness wasn’t a good position to be in.
She had skipped the Asian Championships to work on her fitness, her focus was on the Uber Cup. That decision seems to be paying off for her and the team.
During the first game on Tuesday, she was more alert and faster than Ratchanok, the latter relied more on her strokes. Saina kept earning points and pressurised the Thai girl to make a lot of forced errors.
Ratchanok also had her share of moments as she came back from behind to go level with Saina. But the Hyderabadi girl held on her own to seal it 22-20.
Coming into the match with a 0-2 record in her recent appearances against Ratchanok, the first game win gave her a lot of confidence as she came up with all guns blazing in the second set, her smashes became sharper and her opponent did not have an answer for her slices. “First set win was crucial. After that win, I became more confident and played better in the second one,” Saina told reporters after her match.
Few months ago, it was a different Saina, the fight in her that had catapulted her to the highs of an Olympics 2012 bronze was missing. Her knees and a few kilos she had put on post london Olympics had made her slower in her movement on the court.
“I still can’t believe it that I won in straight sets. She is world No. 4 and it was not easy at all. I have trained well for this tournament and this win showed that I still have the confidence in me. I am fit now and it is helping in my movement. She (Ratchanok) was attacking and I was ready for it and my defence was good too,” she added.
In the second game, she raced to an 11-4 lead and completed the formality at 21-14 to pull off an astounding win. “I wanted to get the feeling of beating a top player,” she said.
However, the win against Ratchanok might give Saina the much-needed confidence but it would be too early to say that she has completed a turnaround considering the fact that the Thai girl was low on confidence as she is coming off a long injury. Prior to the tournament, she had said that people should not expect a lot from her.
Following Saina’s win, world No. 11 PV Sindhu made it 2-0 for India, beating world No. 9 and another rising star Porntip Burnaprasertsuk 21-19, 21-14.
India’s leading doubles pair of Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponappa, them made it an unassailable 3-0 with a 21-16, 21-13 win over the pair of Savitree Amitrapai-Duanganong Aroonkesorn in 34 minutes.
Thailand pulled one back for the visitors as Busanan Ongbumrungpan had it easy over PC Thulasi 21-15, 21-10.
later, Saina and Sindhu paired up for the first time at the international stage but lost 12-21, 21-18, 15-21 to Kunchala Voravichitchaikul-Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
But the most important message of the day was that India’s shuttle queen is fit and that is a matter of great importance because a lot of prestigious tournaments like Asian games, World Championships and Commonwealth Games are lined up over the next six months.
On Wednesday, Indian men play their final group match against Germany. Both teams are already out of the Thomas Cup.