Indonesia Masters: Defeat, Tai Tzu Ying’s brilliance give Saina Nehwal blueprint to future success

Saina Nehwal has learnt a lot of things over the course of her dozen year-long pro career. Putting on the mask of a smile after she loses a title isn’t one of those.

So, the 27-year-old didn’t hold back her tears after being blitzed 21-9, 21-13 by Tai Tzu Ying in the final of the Indonesia Masters Super 500 in Jakarta on Sunday. She stood on the podium a little like a lost child, the spotlight of the medal ceremony prolonging her agony. That runner-up medal, cheque, trophy, the posing and accepting of commiserations – she looked like she wanted none of those at that moment. This could be the Saina of 10 years ago – at 17, she detested defeat and the tears almost always spurred her on to return with vengeance and achieve whatever it was that was eluding her.

So, as inopportune as the day is – Nehwal lost the quickest of the 33 finals of her career – this would be a good time to declare that Saina Nehwal is back. The signs were not on the court, where 80 per cent of rallies ended in under four shots, as she completely failed to read Tai Tzu’s deception.

But it was all over her visage as Saina teared up, that the Chinese Taipei wunderkid brimming with more strokes than half the Top 10 women combined, has offered her a target that the Indian will obsessively go after, trying to find a way out.

The lost final — and Saina’s typical response in going back to the drawing board, to the invisible hours in the gym and on the running track — will form the basis of her resolve. Four quarterfinal defeats in World Championships had got her so restless, as had the lost pre-quarters match at the Beijing Games, that she went on to pick two at the Worlds, and the bronze in London. The prodigiously talented Tai Tzu, who was sharp from her first warm-up toss (Saina’s now 5-9 against her, having lost the last seven times) will be the woman to beat on Saina’s horizon.

Here’s what happened: Saina was 0-3 down in the opening game, and 0-4 down in the second, even before she knew what hit her. The Indian had been moving well this whole week in downing Chen Yufei, PV Sindhu and Ratchanok Intanon. But an opponent of the calibre and preparation of Tai Tzu needed her to be much lighter on her feet and reacting more than a split second earlier.

The Taipei girl is anyway difficult to read. Sample these:
7-11. Tai Tzu returns from the break and with little to no change in her overhead action, sends the shuttle in a 42-shot rally, the longest of the match, to three different spots, one after the other, on the court.

9-15. Saina is chasing after the bird in her deep forehand corner, scurrying diagonally to her backhand net, lurching to reach her forehand net next and then breathless as she returns from her deep backhand.

The Indian was so boggled by both the speed and the direction of the shots on this day, that she would miss easy put-away smashes, sending them wide.

A peach of a winner for Tai Tzu came when she was at 19-9. A punch clear would see Saina scamper back and she’d be predictably late, when Tai Tzu would send one skimming the still air above the net in Saina’s forecourt forehand corner.

Slow motion
The Indian was a game down in 12 minutes. 0-3 of Game 2 played out in slow motion and highlighted just what Tai Tzu does to her opponents. Saina was hovering mid-court and looked like she had a grip on the still-nascent rally, when Tai Tzu, looking like she’d push one to the back, held back her wrist.

Saina, literally poised to go back and across, would realise a second late that the shuttle was coming at her but would fall way short. Wrong-footed, she would stop herself from going back, but the momentum would deprive her the time to move forward. Tai Tzu was literally pulling the shuttle from thin air, and sending it back with precise decisions.

Usually, the 22-year-old World No 1’s deception is seen in her cross-court game – the drops and the flicks. But at 9-16 came the variation of all variations. A reverse slice drop, that to any watching eye was headed across right till the last twitch of the wrist joint, came straight and harried an already hassled Saina. The Indian, a slow starter usually, would realise that, at this stage of her career, younger and more buzzing opponents will not afford her the time to settle in.

Saina would try to compose herself and work a way out, but Tai Tzu was far too snappy to allow her alternate plans to work. She needed to keep her shots steep and sharp, but with the match running away, even the gritty Saina Nehwal was left with no choice but to climb the shorter step of the podium.

Saina had settled for the World Championship silver against Carolina Marin in 2015 here, but she didn’t look like she’d forget this match and move on from this scything too fast. Just as well because every time she has been denied a win in a match for which she thought she had prepared well, the Indian fighter has come back stronger to tick the box. She’s not at her best still, but the Asian Games in the second half of the year at the Istora Senyan should be a good target.

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