Thailand’s Women’s Singles player, Ratchanok Inthanon defeated India’s Saina Nehwal in a group match of the Sudirman Cup 2011, on Monday, April 23. The Thai shuttler delivered a wonderful performance against the World Number 4, Saina.
The 16-year-old Ratchanok played a superb game throughout the match against the experienced Saina, who remained struggling to find her rhythm.
In the opening set of the match, Ratchanok played a near-flawless game against Saina. The Thai youngster played a planned game by manipulating the weaker areas of the Indian.
Saina tried to control the game and break the flow of her opponent, but failed in all her plans as Ratchanok spared no chance for her to come back in the game. At the interval, Ratchanok was leading the game by 11-3.
After the break, the Thai shuttler continued her convincing run in the match and finished up the game by a big margin of 21-14. Saina made many errors in the start of the game which caused her the loss of the opening set.
In the second game, both ladies put up superb show of top class badminton and remained neck-to-neck by reaching at 10-10. At the end of the opening part of the game, Ratchanok was leading the game by a one-point lead, 11-10.
After taking a rest for one minute, both shuttlers progressed with equal pace in the match and reached at the crucial stage of 20-20. Ratchanok managed to score the remaining points in a row and won the set by a 22-20 margin.
After losing the match, Saina said, “Yesterday’s game was quite tough and that made me really slow today. I was still confident I could pull through but I made too many errors today.”
Saina also appreciated the slick play of Ratchanok and said that the girl will lead the world in the near future.
Saina said, “She can become really good. She’s troubling a lot of the Chinese players and doing really well against most of them. She’s going to be good in the future.”
http://blogs.bettor.com/Thailands-Ratchanok-Inthanon-beats-Indias-Saina-Nehwal-in-the-Sudirman-Cup-2011-Badminton-News-a71054