Denmark Open: Saina Nehwal goes down fighting against Tai Tzu Ying in final

NEW DELHI: Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal's dream run in the Denmark Open ended as she went down fighting against World number one Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei 13-21, 21-13, 6-21 in the women's singles final on Sunday.
Saina, who was playing her first Super Series final in two years after she won the Australian Open title, once again failed to snap her losing streak against Tai. With this victory, Tai has an overwhelming 13-5 career head-to-head record against Saina.
The Indian shuttler last defeated Tai Tzu in 2013 and since then the Chinese Taipei shuttler has been victorious in the last 11 matches between the two.
Saina started off the first game with a serving error and Tai Tzu surged ahead 4-1 in no time. Tai exhibited her best game as she won a point after a 36-shot rally. Saina seemed to have not found her elements and committed regular errors to give Tai 9-3 lead as the Chinese Taipei shuttler went into the break with a comfortable 11-5 lead in the first game.
After the break, Saina probably won the point of the match when she came up with a backhand return, to which Tai had no reply. Tai continued to have the upper hand with Saina also helping her with continuous errors. Tai fired a jumping smash to make it 18-13 and trapped Saina in her deceptive drop shot before she sealed the deal 21-13 in 15 minutes.
Saina opened the second game with 3-1 lead before conceding a point after a 41 shot-rally. The Indian moved ahead 7-3 after winning points on jumping smashes. Regular error of judgement by Tai handed Saina 9-4 lead as she had a six-point advantage at the break leading 11-5.
Tai reduced the deficit by winning three straight points before she committed an error. Nothing was going in Tai's way in the second game as her smashes were landing outside the line. Saina screamed her heart out after Tai made two consecutive errors that put her 17-9 ahead.
Tai ended her error streak with a smash and then came up with the rally of the match that finished with Saina's error. But it did not deter Saina at all as she kept her nerves to clinch the second game 21-13 and forced the match into the decider.
The scores were locked at 2-2 in the third and deciding game before Tai shifted gears and earned nine straight points and headed ino break with an 11-2 lead. The break did not bring any good fortune for Saina as she was seen struggling to catch Tai's pace in the game and eventually lost 6-21.