New Delhi, Apr 25: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal today blamed the contentious line call that went against her in the deciding game for her shock defeat to Yui Hashimoto of Japan today, saying that it had upset her rhythm greatly and led to her crashing out of India Open Super Series here.
Saina was leading 20-17 in the decider and was serving for the match when a line call, which looked clearly out, went in Hashimoto’s favour, and the world number two and top seed Indian squarely laid the blame for here defeat to the controversial decision.
“I was really upset with line call and could not focus after that. It was quite bad as I failed to find my rhythm after that. I just could not control after that and it was totally my mistake,” she said after losing her second round match.
“I was match point 17-20 up and I thought that the match was almost over but I had to play those points (after that line call) but I was totally not able to focus,” a disappointed Saina said.
The London Olympics bronze medallist went down to Yui Hashimoto of Japan 21-13 12-21 20-22 in the women’s second round at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here.
“I tried my best today to pull off the match but that did not happen. The line call was not with me … It’s okay,” said the top seeded shuttler.
World number two Saina said after the line call, she hardly got time to get back into momentum.
“Everything happened so fast. Rallies were happening so fast I did not have enough time to control and after the line call I just gave one point away at 20-19, which was a smash error. And it was all over,” she explained. (PTI)
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