Contrasting victories for Saina, Srikanth
Saina Nehwal returns a shot against Indonesia’s Maria Febe Kusumastuti during their women’s singles match at the 2015 Malaysia Open Badminton Superseries in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
New Delhi, April 1: Newlycrowned India Open champions, shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, notched up contrasting victories to enter the second round of the $ 500,000 Malaysia Open Super Series Premier, in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
Set to be crowned world no. 1 on Thursday, Saina hardly broke a sweat as she dumped Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia 21- 13, 21- 16 in the women’s singles after world no. 4 Srikanth edged out England’s Rajiv Ouseph 1021, 21- 15, 22- 24 in the men’s singles.
The Olympic bronzemedallist, Saina will next take on a Chinese qualifier Yao Xue even as Srikanth set up a clash with world no. 16 Tian Houwei of China on Thursday.
Saina and Srikanth had clinched the China Open Super Series last year, before winning the India Super Series last Sunday.
Saina produced a dominating show in the first game not giving any chance to the Indonesian after opening a huge 12- 4 lead early on. At 19- 13, she grabbed two straight points to seal the game.
In the second, Maria managed a 4- 2 lead but that evaporated soon as Saina took control, leading 10- 6. The Indonesian clawed her way back at 10- 10 till 15- 15, before the girl from Hyderabad zoomed ahead once again. Srikanth had beaten Ouseph at the World Championship last year and he kept his record intact on the day as he grabbed control of the match early on before breaking off at 7- 7 in the first game.
He blasted 10 straight points to create a huge gulf which Ouseph could never breach as the Indian led 1- 0.
Srikanth had the opportunity to seal the match in the second game itself but squandered a 6- 0 lead as Ouseph rode on a six- point burst at 13- 12 to roar back into the contest.
The decider was a rollercoaster as Srikanth brought his never- say- die attitude to the fore, fighting back from 3- 7 and 8- 11 down to eventually edge out the England shuttler.
Later, Parupalli Kashyap and world no. 17 H. S. Prannoy also advanced to the next rounds.
World no. 13 Kashyap got the better of South Korea’s Lee Dong Keun 21- 15, 11- 21, 21- 14, while Prannoy defeated Ireland’s Scott Evans 2220, 21- 18 in 40 minutes.