Li Xuerui of China celebrates after winning the women’s singles final match against Saina Nehwal (right) of India at the China Open.

IANS/Fuzhou, China


Top seed and defending champion Saina Nehwal went down in yet another final this year, losing the women’s singles summit clash of the $700,000 China Open Superseries Premier to reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui in straight games here yesterday.
Sixth seed Xuerui, who won here in 2012 and 2013, needed only 39 minutes to beat World No.2 Saina 21-12, 21-15 at the at the Haixia Olympic Sports Center.
With this victory, the World No.7 extended her domineering record to 10-2 against the Indian, having won the last six encounters between them.
Xuerui took home $52,500 for her title win while Saina, whose last victory against Xuerui came in 2012, was rewarded $26,600.
This was Saina’s fifth final of the year.
She won twice at the India Grand Prix Gold and India Open Superseries but has lost every summit clash since then.
She went down in the All-England and World Championships final to World No 1 Carolina Marin of Spain and now to the former World No 1 Xuerui, who is a two-time Worlds silver medallist.
Xuerui was so dominant on the day that she won 42 of the 69 points played in the match. She was far better when it came to the longer rallies, out-witting the Hyderabadi to clinch easy points.
Though she served up some unforced errors at the start of the match to give Saina a 4-1 lead, the 24-year-old Chinese soon found her rhythm to bag six straight points and take a 7-4 lead.
She kept building on it, making her 25-year-old opponent run all over the court to retrieve the shuttle. Most times, the bird from Saina’s racquet either found the net and went way beyond the line.
The 2014 Asian Games silver medallist’s agile picks were too hard for the Indian to retrieve.
Xuerui made Olympic bronze medallist Saina run helter-skelter on the court, and another error from her handed the Chinese the first game on the third gamepoint.
Like the first game, Saina raced away to a 4-0 lead. This time though, with the help of some good cross-court deception and a strong backhand, she took a healthy lead of 12-6.
But suddenly the tables turned as Saina lost 15 of the next 18 points played. Xuerui upped the ante, something that Saina could not match, and won seven consecutive points to go 13-12 up.
And then from 15-all, the local girl, backed by a vociferous home crowd, earned six straight points to pocket the match and take home the title.