New Delhi [India], Feb 3: The black day for Indian shuttlers, Zhang, who occupies the 11th spot on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings, won the battle of the 27-year-olds by a runaway 21-10, 21-13 scoreline in two minutes over the half-hour mark, leaving top-seeded PV Sindhu the sole survivor from the host nation in the two stellar singles events.
The changeling we saw on court on Friday was not the Saina who had knocked out the likes of China’s Chen Yufei, compatriot Sindhu and Thailand’s former world champion Ratchanok Intanon, on her way to the Indonesian Masters final, where she had lost to Taiwan’s World No 1, Tai Tzu Ying. This particular Saina appeared exhausted by her exploits of the previous week, and was unable to raise a gallop against the Chinese-American, to whom she had never lost earlier.
It further spotlighted the vicious manner in which the BWF has been killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, cracking the whip on the players and making it mandatory for the top-15 stars to play at least 12 of 15 designated tournaments. And this, in a year which also has the Asian Team tournament, the Commonwealth Games and the Thomas/Uber Cup team events, all of which require turning out for the country.
