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Loss, but no disgrace! |
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By: ASHWIN FERRO |
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Date:
2008-08-14 |
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Place: BEIJING |
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SHE may have gone down 28-16, 14-21, 15-21 to a player seeded six places below her, but national coach Pullela Gopichand refused to find any fault in India's World No 15 badminton ace Saina Nehwal's game.
"She fought very hard. She gave it her all. That's what I always wanted from her and she didn't disappoint me today," the former All-England winner told MiD DAY after his protégé went down to World No 21 Maria Kristin Yulianti of Indonesia in a keenly contested quarter-final that lasted an hour and four minutes at the Beijing University of Technology Courts here yesterday.
Nehwal committed quite a few unforced errors besides letting some overhead shots go assuming they were outbound and ended up conceding points in the bargain. However, Gopichand attributed that to a flaw in the court. "It was a matter of error in judgement but then there was quite a drift on one side of the court which eventually went against her on a number of occasions," reasoned Gopichand, who also went on to shower praises on her opponent.
"From the second half of the second game onwards, I thought Yulianti played an outstanding match. Certainly it was some of the best badminton I have seen in some time," he said.
Experience
In Game Three, Yulianti used her experience to push Saina, seven years her junior, to either side of court, leaving the Indian gasping for breath and losing an eight point lead (11-3) in the bargain. But Gopichand said experience was not a major factor. "Yulianti is a senior player and experience may have helped her a bit but I don't think it had a decisive influence on the outcome of the match," he said.
The Hyderabadi girl however remains a part of history, having become the first Indian to enter the quarter-final of an Olympic badminton event, and Gopichand is only confident that in future she would bring in greater glory for the country. "The important thing is that she is not low on morale right now. She was disappointed after the defeat but has slowly overcome it. She's already looking forward to her next international assignment," he said.
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