Jakarta: Saina Nehwal made a perfect start to the new season, reaching the women’s singles final of the USD 3,50,000 Indonesia Masters badminton tournament with a thrilling straight-game win over World No.4 Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand here Saturday. Earlier in the quarterfinals played Friday, she had outwitted PV Sindhu 21-13, 21-19 in an all-Indian affair.
Former World No. 1 Saina, who has won thrice in Indonesia, dished out a spirited performance to overcome a fighting Ratchanok 21-19, 21-19 in the semifinal lasting 48 minutes. She thus took her head-to-head record against the Thai player to 9-5.
Saina will play World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei who beat Chinese eighth seed He Bingjiao 19-21, 21-15, 21-15, in the final, Sunday.
In the opening game, Ratchanok opened up a 3-1, 8-5 and 11-8 lead at the break. Immediately on resumption, Saina committed an error to fall behind 8-12. However, two deft drops and then a body smash saw her reduce the gap to 11-12. She then went ahead at 13-all when Ratchanok went wide and then grabbed a 14-13 lead when the Thai player sent the ball long.
Down 14-15, Saina then won a 32-shot rally that had the spectators applauding with glee. The players went neck and neck till 19. However, because of Saina’s dogged tenacity, Ratchanok, in her haste to achieve points quickly, sent two smashes wide to hand the game to Saina.
In the second game, Saina came out all cylinders blazing as she zoomed to a 6-1 lead. Ratchanok won a point with a cross court drop but Saina produced a towering smash and a precise return to make it 9-2. She continued to dominate and took her lead to 17-11.
Just when it looked all over, Ratchanok changed gears and reeled off eight points in a row to lead 19-17. However, Ratchanok again hit the ball long helping Saina narrow the gap to 18-19. Then a fine dribble at the net saw her catching up at 19-all with the Thai player.
Saina then forced Ratchanok to commit another error after a 21-stroke rally to get to match point. The Thai player then made an error of judgement on her backhand side to help Saina reach the final.
In men’s doubles, the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who had stunned the fourth-seeded Danish pair of Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding 23-21, 15-21, 21-19, Friday evening in the quarterfinals, however, failed to keep the momentum going as they lost to the local combo of Marcus Fernaldi and Sanjaya Sukamuljo, 14-21, 11-21.
Press Trust of India
