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26 April 2024

China's Wang upsets India's Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal during her women's singles final match against Wang Yihan at the BWF World Superseries Finals in Liuzhou city on December 18, 2011. (AFP)

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By AFP

Top seed Wang Yihan of China proved too good in the end for Saina Nehwal of India.

World champion Wang Yihan played party pooper by beating Saina Nehwal, whose fine run at the BWF World Super Series Finals ended in a 18-21, 21-13, 21-13 defeat in the title clash at Liu Zhou, China, on Sunday.

Yihan extended her unbeaten run against Saina to 4-0 after the 1hour, 11 minute encounter, the longest duel on the final day.

Having never won against Yihan in her last three meetings, Saina looked in a hurry to dominate her. She was off in a flash. Mixing aggression with caution, she went into the break with a healthy six-point lead.

But Yihan never looked worried as she cut pace on her returns and surprised Saina with clever placements.

Though the Indian covered the court well, Yihan managed to find open spaces. Once Yihan started collecting points, a rattled Saina started making mistakes.

The Chinese ace drew level at 14-14 but Saina pushed ahead with an accurate cross block and a powerful smash to move to 16-14. Yihan pressed further and both players traded points turning it into a fierce contest.

At 19-18, Yihan made a feeble return giving the bird a lot of air close to the net. Saina gleefully accepted the offer and moved to game point. Another unforced error by Yihan helped Saina wrap up the first game at 21-18.

Yihan started off on a strong note in the second and Saina was forced to play catch up. Saina managed to reduce the deficit (11-11) with some breathtaking retrievals but Yihan powered ahead to 15-11.

Tossing the shuttle high, Yihan hardly allowed Saina to come near the net. As the Indian began to struggle, Yihan gained control with power-packed smashes. Once she moved to 18-11, Saina's resistance faded.

The world No.1 successfully disturbed Saina's rhythm by mixing crosscourt drops with effective half smashes. Once Yihan moved to 17-8 with six consecutive points, the writing was on the wall for Saina.

Chinese ace Lin Dan claimed the World Superseries Finals title on Sunday, defeating his compatriot Chen Long in less than an hour, 21-12, 21-16.

The rapid victory gave "Super Dan" badminton's first-ever "Super Grand Slam", with the 28-year-old Chinese pin-up, already the sport's most decorated player, having now won all nine of its premier titles.

Lin had breezed past his long-time foe and Danish veteran Peter Gade to set up the final with Chen, who created the shock of the series after beating defending champion and world number one Lee Chong Wei in the semis.

Danish duo Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen denied China a clean sweep of the men's events after the defending champions trounced their Chinese opponents Chai Biao and Guo Zhendong in the doubles final, 25-23, 21-7.