Saina stuns nemesis Marin
Indian poster girl outplays Spanish world No. 1 to stay in the hunt for a semi-final place
Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton’s poster girl, stormed back into contention for a place in the semi-finals at the WBF’s Dubai World Superseries Finals after defeating world No. 1 Carolina Marin from Spain in a rollercoaster three-set Group A match yesterday.
Nehwal, who capitulated in straight sets to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in her opening match on Wednesday, was a transformed player yesterday, outguessing, outthinking and outmanoeuvring her rival for a 23-21, 9-21, 21-12 victory.
“I really can’t believe how I played today, considering my performance yesterday,” Nehwal admitted. “I never thought about what strategy or about her strengths and weaknesses. I just went out and played my natural game. This is unbelievable, to have beaten her.
“I felt a lot better on court today, compared to yesterday. My foot still hurts but it was not troubling me or affecting my movement. I suppose everything just fell into place today. I was making my shots and at times she wasn’t.”
Nehwal was recording her first victory of the season against Marin, who she lost to at both the All-England and World Championships. It was also only her second career victory over the Spaniard who enjoys a 4-2 dominance over the Indian ace.
Nehwal also credited the hollering “Saina Squad”, a team of cheerleaders from India, for helping her to lift her game.
“They won the match for me today, they worked harder than I did,” she said. “When you have that kind of encouragement it really inspires you to play better, try harder. I don’t think I could have done this without them.”
Underestimating
Marin blamed herself for underestimating her opponent.
“I took her lightly today thinking that she was carrying an injury,” said Marin, who has scored seven major wins on the tour this year. “Perhaps I was a bit underprepared as well.
“You need to come into these sort of big matches with a better game plan and I guess that’s where I made a mistake.
“When you have that mentality you don’t play your best badminton and I don’t think I play well enough today. But it’s not over, I’ll go home, rest and hopefully come back stronger tomorrow and then see what happens. Like I said before I’m here to win and that’s what I aim to do.”
Marin plays her final Group B round-robin match against Japanese fourth seed Nozomi Okuhara, a 21-11, 21-16 winner over defending champion Tai Tzu Ying from Chinese Taipei, who faces Nehwal.
While Tai Tzu is out of contention for a place in the semi-finals Nozomi can seal her place in the last four if she wins her match to become the only unbeaten player in the Group.
Nehwal and Marin will battle for the second qualifiers berth and a lot will depend on their margins of victory against Nozomi and Tai Tzu, respectively.
Wang Yihan, the former world number one from China, showed plenty of character and determination to beat Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon to virtually secure her spot in the semi-finals of the BWF’s Dubai World Superseries Finals at the Hamdan Sports Complex yesterday.
Currently ranked number eight in the world, one place behind her Thai opponent, Wang held her nerves in the final set, and profited from overall tournament experience, to win 19-21, 21-19, 21-11, in an hour and four minutes on the main court.
The 27-year-old Shanghai native, who has enjoyed a colourful and successful career that also saw her win the Silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics, extended her career dominance over Ratchanok, seven years her junior, to 11 wins without loss.
Wang’s big match experience really showed when, after losing the opening set and trailing Ratchanok 16-17 in the second set, she held her nerve to win five of the next seven points to level sets.
Taking control
She took control early in the decider and was able to dominate the exchanges against the aggressive Thai to close out the set and match with far more comfort than expected.
“I told myself that this is OK, that I just have to be positive, and that it’s still possible to do it,” she said. “And if I don’t I can still qualify.” Although Wang has gone without a win on the tour this year, she will have got a lot of confidence from this victory, which will hold her in good stead when she plays Korea’s Sung Ji Huyn in her final Group B round-robin match on Friday.
She beat Chinese compatriot Wang Shixian, the former world number one, 21-19, 1321, 21-19 on Wednesday.
Intanon beat Sung Ji-hyun of Korea yesterday and will now have to beat second seed Shixian tomorrow if she hopes to qualify for the semi-finals.
Meanwhile the world’s second-ranked man, Jan Jorgensen from Denmark, is virtually guaranteed a place in the semis after outplaying China’s Tian Houwei 21-17, 21-16 in just 45 minutes.
Jorgensen now has to play the top-seeded title-holder Chen Long in his final league game on Friday.
“I played much better today, and I will try to do the same against him,” the patient Dane said. “It’s important to keep playing my best.”
Earlier Olympic mixed doubles champions and World Superseries Finals title-holders Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei got back on course to qualify for the semi-finals after their opening morning defeat yesterday, following it by beating Chris and Gabby Adcock, the Commonwealth gold medallists from England.
Zhang and Zhao, the recently wedded Chinese combo, got the better of the other husband and wife pair to win 21-17, 21-18.
Meanwhile, the action offcourt was equally animated with nearly a thousand schoolchildren enjoying the numerous skills challenge activities in the Fanzone after watching the morning’s matches.