Saina Nehwal brilliantly beat P V Sindhu to win the women’s singles gold medal in badminton in the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast in Australia.
In what was a stellar performance the incredible Nehwal’s aggression and intensity won over the talent and skill of the much younger Sindhu.
Leading the head to head count 3-1 before Sunday’s match, she made look seemingly easy beating Sindhu 21-18 23-21 in the high-pressure game which lasted for almost an hour.
This was the last match for Nehwal in this year’s CWG. She was one of the pillars of the Indian gold-winning campaign in the team championship and played all the singles because Sindhu was injured.
Saina managed to dominate the match which started on an equal footing bringing a surprising aggression to court.
Saina initially found it tough to deal with the brute force of Sindhu’s smashes while Sindhu struggled to deal with the delicately placed strokes by Saina, who took the pace off the shuttle by attacking the net.
The plan worked out quite well for Saina and she raced to a 9-4 lead. From then there was no looking back for Saina.
The contrasting styles of the two ace sportswomen was a treat to watch and made for an exhilarating competition.
Saina played smart and left the returns that landed out. Sindhu, on the other hand, struggled with her power shots with the shuttle many a time landing out of the court.
It was Saina’s court coverage which impressed more than that of Sindhu. In one play Sinsdu was brought to her knees trying to return a smash which was low on power but high on placement. That was the Kodak moment of the match and that image was the image of the match.
Saina conquered the opening game 21-18 within 23 minutes.
In the second game, the fight became tougher though Saina was a delight to watch with her angled smashes and Sindhu too exhibited a better command on her smashes and improved her court coverage to take a 9-7 lead.
P V Sindhu led 19-16 at a time but a 64-stroke rally to narrow it to 18-19 brought Saina right back into the game and she equalized at 19-19.
However, Sindhu edged ahead for a 20-19 lead and a game point.
The battle continued when Sindhu hit one out to give Saina the equalizing point yet again
Sindhu quickly made the score 21-21 and it was a close call.
But then Saina was back in lead with a cross-court smash that Sindhu just could not reach.
Finally serving for the gold, Saina forced a wide stroke from Sindhu and then let out a scream to celebrate the triumph.
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