Liang pays price for failure to stay calm
She lost because she so desperately wanted to win that it disrupted her play.
Singapore's Olympic hopeful Liang Xiaoyu exited the OUE Singapore Open women's singles competition yesterday after a 21-18, 21-4 first-round loss to defending champion Sun Yu of China at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Liang (above), 20, was trailing 13-18 in the first set but fought back to draw level at 18-18, before capitulating to the world No. 12.
"At 18-18, I wanted to win too much and got panicky, and I tend to drop points when I get that way," said world No. 42 Liang.
It got worse in the second set after the two players swopped sides on Court 3, where the draught is known to be strong.
Said Liang: "I could not master the wind and a lot of my shots to the side went wide, which made me even more panicky.
"It was difficult to score against my opponent; I could rally with her, but I did not have a killer shot.
"I'm quite disappointed today because I didn't play that well. I was okay in the first set, but the more I played in the second the more clueless I became.
"This was unexpected."
Liang's exit followed that of teammate Derek Wong (men's singles), and the mixed doubles pair of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Vanessa Neo on Tuesday. All four shuttlers are aiming to qualify for the Rio Olympics in August and there are only weeks remaining to gain points till the May 5 deadline.
Chrisnanta is still in the tournament, after he and men's doubles partner Hendra Wijaya beat Malaysia's Tai An Khang and Hong Kheng Yew 21-18, 21-19 in the first round.
They will face Japan's Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda today.
Chrisnanta, 27, said: "It was a close match and a good win... I was very motivated today with all the support (from the crowd)."
The duo, who teamed up briefly four years ago, resumed their partnership early this year.
Chrisnanta said: "We are still finding (our chemistry), the last time we partnered together we did well and we will try to get back to that level as soon as possible."
In the women's doubles, Elaine Chua and Citra Dewi Sari fell 21-10, 21-14 to Japanese top seeds Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi, while Jin Yujia and Crystal Wong lost 21-16, 21-19 to Taiwan's Chang Hsin-tien and Hu Ling-fang.
Women's singles shuttler Grace Chua lost her first-round tie to Japan's Sayaka Sato 21-11, 21-11.
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