T

hree-time All England mixed doubles champions Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir'€™s dream of attaining a fourth consecutive title in badminton'€™s oldest tournament was crushed easily by archenemies Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, England, on Sunday.

World number one pair Zhang and Zhao performed almost flawlessly in their one-sided 21-10, 21-10 victory over the Indonesian pair in a repeat of last year'€™s final match.

'€œToday we are not in peak form, unlike in the semifinals. They [Zhang and Zhao] also seem to be better prepared. They played more aggressively and we made a lot of errors. This will act as a lesson for us,'€ said Liliyana in a press statement sent by the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI).

Fired up by their win against Tontowi and Liliyana in the 17th Asian Games final last year, Zhang and Zhao put on a commanding performance from the start.

They easily led the first game 8-1 thanks to unforced errors by Tontowi and Liliyana, who seemed lost in their play. After the interval, Tontowi and Liliyana tried hard to close in with an 11-8 score.

Unfortunately, the score gap was just too much for the fourth-seed pair Tontowi and Liliyana to catch up. Zhang/Zhao stole the first game 21-10.

'€œThey played really well today, while we cannot maintain our composure. We should be able to play calmly because we have won this tournament three times,'€ said Liliyana.

Entering the second game, Tontowi and Liliyana still had not regained their form, leaving the 2012 London Olympic gold medalist pair ahead with 7-4.

Even though Tontowi and Liliyana gave it their best in the remainder of the game, the Chinese pair proved too strong an opponent this time despite their 5:5 head to head record before.

'€œI feel a lot of pressure today, which leaves me unable to give my best. We will learn a lot from today'€™s match,'€ said Tontowi.

In the women'€™s singles, Carolina Marin became the first Spaniard to win the All England title after crushing India'€™s Saina Nehwal 16-21, 21-14, 21-7.

Nehwal, the first Indian to win an Olympic badminton medal in London, stormed through the first game to wrap it up 21-16.

Marin, the first Spaniard and third female European player to win the badminton World Championship title in 2014, avenged her loss in the second game.

Once Marin had tied the game at 12-12, she widened the score gap and wrapped up the game at 21-14.

The third game went easy for Marin as Nehwal seemed to lose her form. Nehwal went down 21-7.

The final match between China'€™s Chen Long and Danish Jan O Jorgensen in contesting for the men'€™s singles title was scheduled for later in the day.

The men'€™s doubles final was to be a battle between Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan of China and Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark.

In the women'€™s doubles, it was to be an all Chinese final between fifth seeded Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang against Bao Yixin and Tang Yuanting.