New Delhi: An erratic Saina Nehwal let slip the early advantage as she went down to world number one Wang Yihan in the summit clash to sign off as runner-up in the BWF season-ending World Super Series Finals in Liuzhou, China on Sunday.
World No.4 Saina, however, would be pleased with her performance in the season-ending tournament where she became the first Indian singles player to make it to the final, eventually losing to a player who ended the year with seven titles and the No.1 spot in the rankings.
Saina, who had a 0-3 record against Wang prior to the match, showed promise for her first win over the Chinese after playing a gutsy first game.
Wang bounced back strongly in the second, taking a 18-11 lead in the second courtesy a combination of powerful forehand smashes and perfectly placed drop shots to which Saina had no answer.
The Shanghai-born 23-year-old was in complete control of the decider from point one with unforced errors from Saina’ racket helping her take a 18-10 lead. The Indian was finding it tough to win points on long rallies and whenever she tried to go for broke, it yielded her mixed results. Saina was in the hunt till she took three straight points to be 6-9 down but her patches of brilliance fell short against the consistency of Yihan, who expectedly wrapped up the match with a blistering forehand smash.
The Hyderabadi had also lost to Wang in the Indonesia Open Superseries final in June and in the quarterfinals of the China Masters in September. (Agencies)