SAINA Nehwal, the first Indian woman to win a Super Series tournament, became the first to win a Commonwealth gold medal today, but had to save a fraught match point to do it.
The great home favourite made the last match of the tournament the most dramatic, surviving by about one inch near the end of the second game in a 19-21, 23-21, 21-13 victory over the second seeded Wong Mew Choo.
“This was the toughest match of my career,” said Nehwal.
“I couldn’t sleep and I had a lot of tension, which meant I did not always play at my best. All Indian players face that here, but for me I only get it in finals.”
Wong had nearly beaten the Hyderabad heroine in the team event six days previously, and would have done so in straight games this time had Nehwal’s kill at the net at 20-21 travelled a fraction further.
Instead it landed plumb on the baseline.
This narrowest of survivals roused the crowd to even higher decibel levels, injected Nehwal with fresh adrenaline, and brought a feeling that this title, here in India, was one that she really was meant to win.
That was partly because Wong once again fashioned the drop-shot, net shot, lift, pattern which brought Nehwal forwards and backwards, making her work hard and tempting her to try smashes from difficult positions.
Nehwal had the dilemma of either playing this cat-and-mouse form of badminton until there was an opening, or risking mistakes by attempting to force the issue.
It took her a long time to unravel this puzzle and Wong led by 15-11, 19-15, and 20-17 in the first game, but only winning it with an overhead drop which took a lucky net cord.
Nehwal might have avoided trouble had Wong’s high clear been called out and given the favourite an 18-15 lead in the second game.
But it was called in and the distraction was compounded when the giant video replay suggested it might well have been out.
This persuaded her to take a chance on attack at match point down, her smash setting up the slightest chance of a kill. She gambled bravely on taking it and won by the smallest of margins.
The mood swung sharply in the third game. Wong still played well and extended the rallies, but Nehwal went to 7-3 and 14-9 and could then only be beaten by her own uncertainties.
She conquered those too, winning with a trademark piece of accuracy which induced a rare Malaysian error, and celebrating by putting her hands to her mouth, her palm to her forehead and bouncing across court to embrace her team. It was without doubt the highlight of the tournament.
