Saina Nehwal wins Hong KongSuper Series

Ace Indian shuttler
Saina Nehwal rallied to register a
scintillating three-game victory
over Shixian Wang of China to
clinch her third Super Series title
of the year at the Hong Kong
Open in Wanchai on Sunday.
The 20-year-old Indian capped
her career's fourth Super Series
title triumph with a 15-21 21-16
21-17 win over the third seed
Chinese in a gruelling one hour
and 11 minutes summit clash at
the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.
The girl from Hyderabad won
back-to-back titles -- Indian
Open Grand Prix, Singapore
Open Super Series and defended
the Indonesian Super Series --
before clinching the gold medal
in the Commonwealth Games in
October here.
Saina, who dropped to fourth in
the world rankings, is likely to
inch closer to the number one
spot with this resounding victory.
Saina played a tactical game
after she lost the first game and
clawed her way back with some
fast-paced rallies and powerful
smashes to outwit the Chinese
world number five.
In the second game, Saina
jumped to 11-5 from 5-5 but
Shixian narrowed the gap to
11-10 before the gutsy Indian
surged ahead to 19-11 by
registering seven straight points.
But Saina missed a couple of
points on the baseline and nets
to allow Shixian close the gap to
19-16. But with the Chinese
hitting the shuttle out, Saina was
back into the match.
In the edge-of-the-seat decider,
Saina and Shixian were locked in
a gruelling battle and didn't
concede an inch to each other.
The Chinese kept pushing the
shuttle at the back court but
Saina was in no mood to relent
as she retrieved everything and
sent down some powerful cross
court smashes to open up a 5-0
lead.
But a couple of misjudgements
on the baseline allowed Shixian
to narrow the gap. The Chinese
started playing fast rallies and
caught Saina at the nets to make
it 6-7 but a series of unforced
errors and a sensational cross
court smash saw Saina change
sides with an 11-9 lead.
Back into her winning side of the
court, Saina involved her rival in
long rallies and waited for
Shixian to make mistakes.
A controversial baseline call gave
Shixian a lead of 14-13 but Saina
didn't give up and wrested the
lead at 15-14, before being
locked at 16-16.
From here on, Saina walked
away with a three-point cushion
with a smash, a net dribble and
round-the-head drop to move to
19-16. Shixian gained another
point with a smash to make it
19-17.
But Saina soon achieved the
match point with another smash
that floored Shixian and with the
Chinese hitting the shuttle out,
Saina threw her racquet to the
audience in celebration.