 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Saina Nehwal dug deep for a fighting victory over Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon while Kidambi Srikanth continued his good run to make the semi-finals of the $750,000 Australian Super Series Badminton tournament, in Sydney, on Friday.
In an exciting women's quarter-final between London Olympics bronze medallist Saina and 2013 World champion Ratchanok, it was the seventh seeded Indian who upstaged the second seed, winning 28-26, 21-16 after 56 minutes.
In an intense opening game, Saina's resilience prevailed over Ratchanok's guile as the duo fought for every point.
The Indian ace held her nerve in the face of some awesome badminton by Ratchanok, who used her deft touch to good effect.
After fighting her way to an 18-16 lead, Saina saw the advantage slip as Ratchanok clawed back.
Thereafter, it was anybody's game as every time Saina grabbed the lead, Ratchanok came up with a cross-court dribble or a disguised drop or acute angled smash to stay in contention.
However, in the end, it was Saina who emerged on top, riding on a net error by the Thai girl and a brilliant low angled return which landed just inside the back line.
In the second game, Saina opened up a 11-7 lead at the break and continued to dominate the proceedings after the interval as she moved to 15-8.
Ratchanok seemed to lack the urgency shown in the first game as she failed to reach for the returns.
At 18-9, Saina lost a video referral challenge and then saw Ratchanok grab a couple of more points. She challenged another similar line call and won it this time to move to 19-12.
Saina conceded another point at the net but a smash gave her seven match-points.
Ratchanok saved three before another smash earned the Indian a semi-final slot.
In the men's singles, world No 13 Srikanth disposed off Korea's Kwang Hee Heo 21-18, 21-17 in 36 minutes.
The Guntur lad will take on Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus next on Saturday.
The Indian had beaten him twice last year while losing once at the 2014 French Open.
Srikanth took time to understand the Korean's game and trailed 0-5 early on but soon fought back from 2-9 and 9-14 down to turn tables and grab the opening game.
In the second game, he was more dominating as he opened up a 11-6 lead and even though the Korean caught up to make it 12-12 and again at 16-16, the Indian managed to see him off.