Indian Open Super Series: Saina Nehwal battles into semis, Sindhu out

Saina Nehwal reacts after her 19-21, 21-14, 21-19 win over Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun in their India Open quarter-final in New Delhi on Friday. (Photo: AFP )

Saina Nehwal seems to be gradually regaining confidence and form. She was able to overcome the injury worries that apparently haunted her during the quarter-final loss at the All England Championships to enter the semi-finals of the India Open Super Series badminton tournament here on Friday.

In an energy-sapping match that lasted 83 minutes, Saina rallied past Korean Sung Ji Heun 19-21, 21-14, 21-19 to make the last-four stage, where she will meet reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui.

Both players came into the match with contrasting seasons behind them. While Saina has much at stake, including regaining form after an indifferent season, Sung was upbeat, with two titles — the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and last week’s New Zealand Open — to her credit.

However, youngster P.V. Sindhu squandered a game advantage to go down to another Korean, Bae Yeon Ju, 21-15, 15-21, 15-21 in another thrilling quarter-final. At a game all, Sindhu wasn’t able to match the fitness of Bae as she ran out of steam.

With Sindhu’s loss, all hopes are on home favourite Saina to take a shot on the women’s title.

As the tournament heads to its final stages, close contests were witnessed on the day. And the Saina-Sung match was no different.

Saina started brilliantly but was caught off guard in the forehand corner of the front court. In fact, the Indian lost more than 10 points in that area during the match — the Korean having done her homework.

However, Saina came out with deft drops and half smashes to keep Sung at bay. The lead kept changing frequently with both shuttlers committing unforced errors. However, the Korean nosed ahead in the first game picking points at the net.

Trailing 17-20, Saina took two points but ended with a wrong line judgement.

After an intense first game, Sung had to take a medical time-out trailing 1-3 in the second. Saina enjoyed the break and started confidently to take the lead to 18-9.

The decider was another neck-and-neck affair though Saina trailed initially but relied on rallies and drops to race to match point. She conceded a point at net but ended with a brilliant half smash.

Said Saina after her win: “It was a tough match. Sung is in great shape. I was not getting points on smashes, so it was either on rallies or drops, so I stuck with it. She has improved a lot since I played her last.”

In other games, China’s Xue Song rallied to shock 15th ranked German Marc Zwiebler 16-21, 21-13, 21-14 in the men’s quarter-finals. World no. 2 Li fou-ght her out of her skin to overcome compatriot Wang Shixian 22-20, 12-21, 21-17. Ratch-anok Intanon ousted eigh-th seed Tai Tsu Ying of Chinese Taipei 12-21, 21-14, 22-20.