World Championships: This is one loss Saina won't forget easily

This is one loss Saina Nehwal would not be able to forget easily. The Indian ace went into the BWF World Championship quarterfinal against Korea’s 13th seed Yeon Ju Bae as a runaway favourite and walked out battered and squarely beaten.

The quarterfinal encounter was supposed to be Saina’s first real test in Guangzhou, China, before she was expected to challenge the might of the hosts. Instead, the world number four showed that her lack of form in 2013 has continued despite six full weeks of preparation and a favourable draw.

The draw of the 2013 BWF World Championship looked like it had been scripted to allow the London Olympic bronze medallist to finally break the jinx of falling at the last eight hurdle after three unsuccessful attempts.

Unlike in the past, there was no Chinese opponent in her path till the semifinal stage, which was enough to assure a medal, and the only match the world number four had to really work hard to win was going to be the quarterfinal encounter against either Yeon Ju Bae or Minatsu Mitani.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist was herself very confident of ending her world championship medal drought as she had never lost to any of the two opponents when she was 100 per cent fit.

She had spent almost six weeks in preparing for the prestigious meet and the way she decimated Olga Golovanova of Russia in the second round, she looked primed to achieve her goal.

But things went horribly wrong from there.

Saina prevailed over Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in three games in the pre-quarterfinals and though it is not uncommon for top players to be stretched to the decider at this level, the manner in which Saina played left a lot to be desired.

The 23-year-old has played in big halls with AC drift for so many years now that it was difficult to understand why she took so much time to devise an effective strategy to counter the drift and dominate her opponent.

She never managed the latter, but to her fortune even Porntip struggled to master the drift and the player who made lesser mistakes finally emerged victories.

In the quarterfinal, Saina was far more composed and aggressive and it looked like the pre-quarterfinal performance was just an aberration. But that turned out to be just a wishful thinking as the Indian ace crumbled under intense scrutiny of Bae, who began to test Saina’s agility by pushing her to all corners of the court.

It is common knowledge that Saina’s self-confidence and the never say die attitude are her biggest assets on the international stage.

But the multiple Super Series champion has been slowed down by injuries after the London Olympics, she has been sluggish in her movement and that has also affected her mental state.

Against Bae, the Indian simply crumbled after the Korean began to push her physically and managed to win the first game after clawing her way back from a hopeless situation and saving a game point.

She gave more points through unforced errors and was second best by a big margin in the net exchanges, something the Indian has known to dominate.

It is too early to make too many assumptions about whether Saina could ever win a world championship medal or not since she will get her next chance just a year from now and at 23, she has many more years left to lift the coveted title.

But even Saina would admit that there won’t be any easier opportunities to stand on that podium than the one presented to her this time around.