Wuhan (China): Two-time CWG gold medallist Saina Nehwal continued her impressive run, progressing into the women’s singles semifinals with a straight-game win over unseeded Korean Lee Jang Mi at the Asia Badminton Championships here Friday even as PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were shown the door by their respective opponents.
Saina showed her true colours as she dumped Jang 21-15, 21-13 in a 43-minute clash. She will next face World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei who beat Chinese eighth seed He Bingjiao 21-14, 21-9. It must be stated here that Saina has lost her last seven encounters against Ying.
Both Sindhu and Srikanth went down tamely. While Sindhu lost 19-21, 10-21 to seventh-seeded Korean Sung Ji Hyun, men’s top seed Srikanth once again went down 12-21, 15-21 to the legendary Malaysian Lee Chong Wei.
Brimming with confidence the in-form Saina showed great temperament as she bounced back from 3-8 and 9-13 deficits respectively, to first turn the tables at 14-13 and then walked away with the opening game.
The World No. 15 Korean simply failed to put up a fight in the second game as Saina stamped her authority with an 8-1 lead. Jang reduced the lead to 8-12, but then Saina unloaded a series of telling smashes to quickly close out the game and the match without any further ado.
Sindhu, meanwhile, failed to get across 2015 World Championships bronze medallist Ji, an opponent she has played 11 times, winning seven of those encounters.
The 22-year-old Indian squandered a 16-12 advantage to allow Sung Ji pocket the opening game. In the second, Sindhu simply wasn’t good enough as the Korean jumped to a 5-1 lead and kept her nose ahead at 11-9 at the interval. The World No.9 then reeled off seven straight points to double her lead and soon shut the doors on the Indian.
A lot was expected from Srikanth after his win over Chong Wei en route to India’s maiden gold in the mixed team event at CWG, but the Malaysian came out with all cylinders blazing. He moved to a massive 13-4 lead in the opening game and won it without breaking a sweat.
Wei, who had defeated Srikanth for the individual gold at Gold Coast, kept his distance from the Indian in the second game as well after moving to a 10-8 lead. Despite Srikanth’s best efforts, Wei walked away with the game and the match.
Press Trust of India