Press Trust of India
Wuhan (China), April 28: Shuttler Saina Nehwal reached the quarterfinals of the Asia Badminton Championships after brushing aside Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol in straight games, here Thursday.
The fifth-seeded Indian prevailed 21-14, 21-18 over Jindapol to take her head-to-head record to 7-0 against the Thai player. The World No 8 will take on third seeded Chinese Shixian Wang next. The Indian has 6-7 record against the Chinese and has lost the last two encounters.
The other Indian in the fray, PV Sindhu, however, suffered a narrow 21-13, 20-22, 8-21 loss against the deceptive Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in a match that lasted for an hour.
Sindhu was leading 12-6 in the second and looked like closing out the match. But a lapse in concentration saw her opponent catch up at 14-all. Sindhu again led briefly at 18-16 and 20-19 but could not capitalise on her chances and lost the game after it went to deuce.
In the decider, she looked completely out of breath and threw in the towel. She made a number of unforced errors which allowed Ying to lead 8-1 early on and she never allowed Sindhu a chance to comeback into the match.
Saina, on the other hand, hardly broke any sweat as she went about her business with utmost ease. She opened up early leads in both the games and held her fort.
“Yes, I was never under any real pressure in the match,” Saina said after winning her tie. “Hopefully I can continue in the same vein tomorrow (Friday).”
