Saina strolls, Sai sweats on way to pre-quarters
WORLD BADMINTON Olympic bronze medallist shows class with win over unseeded Swiss
A confident Saina Nehwal brushed aside the challenge of Sabrina Jaquet in straight games to move to the World Championship pre-quarterfinals, here on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old London Olympics bronze-medallist hardly broke a sweat as she cruised past her Swiss rival 21-11, 21-12 in 33 minutes at the Emirates Arena.
It was the second victory for Saina, who received a bye in the opening round, over Sabrina since the Indian had beaten her rival at the 2012 London Olympics as well.
Saina had won silver in the previous edition of the World Championship in Jakarta while Sabrine is winner of bronze at the European Championships this year. Saina is likely to take on second seed Sung Ji Hyun. The Indian has a 7-2 head-to-head record against the Korean and most recently beat her at the Australian Open in June.
Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth survived a scare from 20-year-old Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, the 2014 Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys’ singles bronze medallist.
World No 19 Praneeth bounced back from a game down to outwit the World No 26 Indonesian 14-21, 21-18, 21-19 in a men’s singles match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes.
In the pre-quarterfinal, Praneeth will take on either Germany’s Marc Zwiebler or Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen.
In women’s singles, 12th seed Saina stamped her authority from the start as she zoomed to a 4-0 lead before extending it to 11-6. The Swiss tried her bit and came as close as 9-13 before Saina reeled off five straight points and eventually wrapped the opening game in 14 minutes.
In the second game, Saina opened up a 5-2 lead and had a 11-7 advantage at the interval. The Indian did not take the foot off the pedal and dished out a series of body smashes to surge to victory.
On the adjacent court, Praneeth was facing the fire of Anthony, who cruised to an 8-0 lead and then jumped to a 16-6 advantage. The gap was too much for Praneeth to bridge and he lost
WORLD NO 19 PRANEETH BOUNCED BACK FROM A GAME DOWN TO OUTWIT THE WORLD NO 26 INDONESIAN 1421, 2118, 2119 IN A MEN’S SINGLES MATCH
the first game. The Indian put up a better effort in the second game, reaching a 7-4 and 11-9 advantage at the break. Leading 14-12, Praneeth had to take a medical timeout and when the game resumed, Anthony managed to grab a slender 16-15 lead but the Indian did not let the opportunity slip as he soon turned the tables on his rival to roar back into contest.
In the decider, Praneeth opened up a 6-2 lead but Anthony managed to grab a 11-9 lead at the breather. After the interval, Anthony surged to a 18-12 advantage. But Praneeth erased a sixpoint deficit to grab a two matchpoint advantage at 20-18. Anthony saved one but the Indian sealed it next to advance.
On Tuesday, Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ram played their heart out before going down 21-13, 16-21, 8-21 to Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek of the Netherlands.