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Saina�s All England dream ends in agony

By The Assam Tribune

BIRMINGHAM, March 8 (PTI): Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal�s quest for becoming the first Indian woman to win the most prestigious All England badminton championship ended in agony after she suffered a heart-breaking loss to Spain�s Carolina Marin in the summit clash here today.

The World No. 3 Indian let go of a huge opportunity to script history as she squandered an opening game lead to go down 21-16, 14-21, 7-21 to the reigning world champion in the women�s singles final that lasted for little over an hour.

Olympic bronze medallist, Saina, thus, failed to emulate her long-time coach Pullella Gopichand (2001) and legendary Prakash Padukone (1980), who had won the prestigious title in the past.

Saina, who has been competing at the All England since 2007, had never lost to Carolina and looked on course for an encore before the World No. 6 Spaniard scripted a remarkable comeback in the second game to put paid to the Indian�s hopes at the Barclaycard Arena.

A billion hopes rode on Saina as she geared up for the finals with cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar also wishing her luck through social networking site twitter, but the Indian ace failed to live up to the expectation.

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