The fourth seeded Indian had saved four game points in a dramatic fightback and was 18-20 when left-handed Xin twisted her knee while going for an acrobatic smash from the baseline and took on-court treatment for the injury.
However, she was back on the court after wrapping her left knee in bandage and immediately attacked Saina’s serve to win the point and the game to be 1-0 up.
But after winning the first point in the second game, Xin could not continue and was wincing in pain before shaking hands with Saina to concede the match and the bronze medal to the 22-year-old Indian ace.
Saina thus became the first Indian badminton player to win a medal at the Olympic Games. She had reached the quarterfinals in Beijing Games four years ago and lost in the semifinals yesterday to gain a chance to play for the bronze today at the Wembley Arena.
This was the second day running that India have won a medal, following pistol shooter Vijay Kumar’s silver medal on Friday.
Earlier, chants of ‘India, India’ welcomed Saina as she entered the Wembley Arena here, carrying a billion hope of winning a medal for her country.
Up against Xin, Saina approached the match with a lot of confidence and quickly opened up a narrow 3-0 lead, but the Chinese used her drops and cross court smashes to dictate the pace of the rallies and narrow the gap.
Saina’s unforced errors also didn’t help her cause and in a jiffy, Xin was leading 11-6 at the interval.
Xin was better prepared against the Indian as she pushed the shuttle at all the four corners of the court and also covered her court well. Saina tried to engage Xin at the net but she played at her hands to concede a few points.
The Chinese, who had beaten Saina four times in the past on six occasions, exploited her rival’s front court area and notched up points with ease at one point. Saina tried to play the shuttle deep but most of the time, she ended up hitting wide and long.
Xin moved into the game point at 20-14 with an angled drop but Saina was not ready to let it go so easily as she used her sharp drops and cross court half smashes to save four game points.
But at 18-21, Xin strained her knee and walked off the court. She was attended by the tournament doctor but after a chat with her coach and a scrap bandage wrapped around her left knee, she walked back into the court and took the first game with a drop shot immediately.
No sooner had the second game started, Xin was seen writhing in pain again as she sat on the court, holding her knee. After a few moment, she conceded the tie to hand over the bronze medal to Saina.
With this win, Saina also became only the second Indian women to win a medal in the world’s biggest sporting event.
