Carolina Marin makes All-England history

Spain’s Carolina Marin returns a shot to India’s Saina Nehwal. — AFP

Birmingham: Carolina Marin, the 21-year-old Andalucian who created one of the biggest sensations in badminton history last year, created another by becoming the first Spaniard ever to win an All-England title.

Marin did that with a 16-21, 21-14, 21-7 women’s singles win over Saina Nehwal, the world number three from India.

And it was a remarkable result for someone from a country where until now little badminton has been played, and one which follows her startling capture of the world title in Copenhagen last year.

What made it all the more stunning was that Marin had never beaten Nehwal before and that she did so this time, having looked headed for defeat at a game and 6-10 down.

But she transformed both the tactical emphasis and the emotion of the match, and well before the end Nehwal’s skills and movement seemed to have strangely evaporated.

“This is quite amazing for me,” said Marin. “I lost to her every time before, so to beat her like this, and in this tournament, is very special indeed.

“It was special when I won the world title — so many people met me at the airport — and this feels very special too. We shall see how people react this time.”

Nehwal, who now has to be content with being the first Indian woman to reach this final, nevertheless started well, moving into a three-point lead at once, and extending it to nine points before consolidating it to 20-11, at which stage it seemed that the match night become very one-sided.

That was because in the process Nehwal also showed how she might be tactically superior.

She often kept the shuttle low and flat, away from Marin’s fine smashing and, when she lifted the shuttle, she usually moved it form side to side and was mostly accurate enough.

Nehwal was also often better at the mid-court pushing and jabbing exchanges, and it became unclear how Marin was going to get back into the match.

It was not until the Spaniard won the point which earned her the serve at 9-15 that she managed to land one of her powerful and deceptive round-the-head smashes for a winner.

But Marin started to come good when she won five points in a row before losing the first game.

And from the mid-stage of the second game she started to hustle and dictate much more, improving greatly in the mid-court exchanges, and fighting much harder.

Even then Marin went 6-10 down in the second game, at which point thoughts of winning the title which had been her childhood dream might well have come into Nehwal’s head.