Press Trust of India
Sydney, June 10: Saina Nehwal dug deep for a fighting win over Thai rival Ratchanok Intanon while Kidambi Srikanth too continued his good run to make the semifinals of the USD 750,000 Australian Super Series Badminton tournament here Friday. Saina won 28-26, 21-16 after a 56-minute battle to upstage the second seed.
In men’s singles, World No. 13 Srikanth disposed Korea’s Kwang Hee Heo 21-18, 21-17 in 36 minutes.
The opening game between Saina and Ratchanok was a thrilling affair. Leads changed hands frequently till the Indian went ahead 18-16. But the Thai player caught up at 20-all to take the game to deuce.
Thereafter Saina had five game points but each time Ratchanok nullified the advantage and then at 25-all it was the latter who managed to go ahead as Saina hit a ball long.
But then Saina held on to her nerves and saved game point with a cross-court drop which the Thai player tried to dribble at the net, but the shuttle hit the top of the chord. She then moved to 27-26 before closing the game with down the line smash.
In the second game, Saina once again opened up an 11-7 lead at the break and extended it to 15-8 and 18-9. A couple of video referrals helped Ratchanok to close down the gap to 19-12, but Saina had no problems winning the game and the match.
In the men’s singles, Srikanth took time to understand the game of the Korean as he lagged behind 0-5, 2-9 and 9-14. But once he found his bearings he won seven points in a row to tie the score at 17-all and then win the opening game. In the second game also, Srikanth established an early lead and won the game comfortably.
