BWF Super Series Finals: Indian challenge ends as Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth lose

DubaiIndias challenge ended at the BWF Super Series Finals after Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth lost their respective womens and mens singles matches in contrasting styles here todayHaving won one match and lost one Saina had to win herfinal league match against Tai Tzuying of Chinese Taipeitoday but she squandered onegame advantage to go down 21161821 1421 in a battle that lasted 50 minutes to bow out ofthe tournamentEarlier Srikanth who had already exited after losingyesterdays match continued with his poor run of form as hesuffered his third successive defeat in the mens singleslosing to Chinese Taipeis Chou Tienchen 1721 1321 in a32minute contestWith Saina losing two out of three matches CarolinaMarin and Nozomi Okuhara have advanced to the next roundThree players have finished with one win and two losseseach Saina missed the cut after taking into account of gameswon versus games lostOkuhara having won all three matches emerged on topwhile Marins record of 34 1 stands to be the second bestin the groupThe Olympic bronze medallist Saina had everything to playfor today and she showed her determination in a draininghardfought match but unfortunately she failed to sustaintill the endThe opening game was a closelyfought affair AlthoughSaina opened up a 31 lead her rival kept breathing down herneck to catch her up first at 55 and then at 99 before the Indian went into the break with a slender 119 edgeAfter the break Saina used her net play and smasheseffectively besides capitalising on her opponents unforcederrors to run away with the game 2116Tzuying saved three match points at 1321 but Sainamaintained her composure to seal the opening game with a crosscourt smashIn the second game Saina suddenly started to struggleand lagged behind 511 at the break owing to a number ofunforced errorsUp 53 the Taipei girl bagged four more points to openup a 94 gap and then extended it further to 135But Saina scripted a fabulous comeback by winning fourpoints on the trot to reduce the gap to 913 and then anotherfour points to further lessen the margin to 1416 beforecatching her rival at 1616 Tzuying hitting the netfrequently also helped Sainas causeHowever the Taipei girl kept her nerves intact to securethree consecutive points to once again take a 2016 leadSaina saved two game points but Tzuying bagged that oneimportant point to take the match to the deciderSaina completely ran out of steam in third game Tzuyingfirst took a 41 lead and then continued to surge ahead tosurge to 179 before wrapping it up rather comfortably in theendEarlier the 22year Srikanth old from Guntur who had a10 record against the Taipei player having beaten him atHong Kong Open today struggled with his strokesSrikanth proved no match to his opponent winning just 30points as compared to 42 by the Taipei shuttlerIn the opening game the Taipei player straight awayopened up a 30 lead and kept on extending it even asSrikanth played the catchup game to eventually lose it 1721Srikanth however showed some fight in the second gameand it was neckandneck till the break with scored tied at1111But after the interval Tienchen won five points on thetrot to surge ahead Although Srikanth won a couple of pointsthe Taipei shuttler did not give the Indian any more chance tomake a comeback bagging four more successive points to sealthe match in his favourSaina said it was hard to read the strokes of her ChineseTaipei opponent as she was very tricky at the netAfter the first game I felt my legs getting heavy Yesterday was a tough match and I had trouble recovering I came in without much preparation so am happy with my performance here said Saina after losing her matchTai Tzuying is a tough player very tricky at the netand its hard to read her strokes she added