Saina battles hard to reach semifinals in Indian Open
NEW DELHI: Defending champion Saina Nehwal upstaged Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun to reach the semifinals but it was curtains for P V Sindhu in the women’s singles of the India Open Super Series, on Friday.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina defeated World No. 8 Sung 19-21 21-14 21-19 in a women’s singles match that lasted for an hour and 23 minutes at the Siri Fort stadium. The Indian will next take on Olympic champion Chinese Li Xuerui, seeded third, who saw off compatriot Wang Shixian 22-20 12-21 21-17 in another quarterfinal match.
Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship Sindhu squandered a one-game lead to go down 21-15 15-21 15-21 against Korean Bae Yeon Ju in another quarterfinal. This was Sindhu’s third loss to the Korean.
In a game of energy-sapping rallies sprinkled with drops and half smashes, it was Saina who emerged victories after Sung committed a series of unforced errors after being tied 17-17 in the decider. There was hardly any winners scored as Saina too made a lot of unforced errors and wrong line judgements to lose points galore. The Indian’s movements at the forecourt on the right side seemed affected by her nagging ankle injury as she failed to retrieve a lot of points in that area.
“She has played really well. I didn’t expect her to do so many rallies actually. she was picking up my shots. The last moments were actually very tense,” she said.