New Delhi: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal settled for a bronze medal after thorough dominance from the World No. 6 Nozomi Okuhara 21-12, 17-21, 10-21 in the semi-final round of the BWF World Championships at Glasgow, today.
The 2012 London Olympic medallist did start off on a strong note piling ample pressure on the Japanese. She rampaged through the first set maintaining her dominance over Okuhara and thus closed in on the first set 21-12 in just 22 minutes.
But a fatigued Saina failed to carry on the momentum. Okuhara utilised on the entire space, went for cross-court duels, tiring out the Indian further as Saina struggled to reach out for the drop shots. Saina did show the intent of a comeback but failed to take it through in the fag-end of the set as Okuhara won 21-17, pushing forth a third and final set.
The decider was an out-and-out one-sided show as Okuhara tamed the former silver medallists at Worlds, crumbling down her hope to 10-21.
“It was disappointing to have lost the despite being a game up. But overall I am happy that I made it to the semis after recently coming out of an injury. I gave it my best and I am pleased with that,” Saina said after her defeat.
“The only thing that changed between the second and third game was that she started picking those difficult shots and started taking the game longer. I tried my level best to push my pace and play longer rallies but she was comfortable and pretty good today,” she added.
“I am happy I am playing well and coming back. I could have pushed a little more today but she was everywhere. In the third game, I was confused and when you do not have an idea where to play, then you start making errors and she took a big lead. I tried to come back but it was quite late.
“Clearly when you play tough matches, it is tiring. I thought we would play in the second session but scheduling was kept like that. (It is) surprising because we do not have enough time to recover and take the necessary steps because I just could not. I just slept.
“Well it is okay because it is the same thing with her (Nozomi), so no excuse for that. I also got tired because of the match yesterday which was quite tough. She (Kirsty Gilmour) was hitting good smashes for which I had to bend a lot; that way it was quite tough for me,” added Saina.
