Saina storms into quarters of World Championships
Saina through, Ajay falls
Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarterfinals of the World badminton championships, easing past Pui Yin Yip of Hong Kong in straight games in the third round on Thursday.
Saina, seeded sixth, was in superb touch right from the start. She toyed with her opponent, conceding just three points in the first game. She was leading 13-5 in the second when the 14th seed retired.
“I am happy to make it to the quarterfinals. I am in the best shape this year. In 2009, I was suffering from chicken pox and didn't get much time to train. This time I have trained for more than a month,” said Saina.
Ajay Jayaram lost a gruelling pre-quarterfinal encounter to sixth seed Jin Chen. Chen subdued Ajay 21-18, 12-21, 11-21 in a match that lasted more than an hour.
Playing her third round match at the Wembley Arena in London on Thursday, Saina Nehwal hardly broke into a sweat while her rapid court movements forced her opponent — Hong Kong's Pui Yin Yip — to stretch every sinew in her body to reach the shuttle in all four corners of the court. The Hong Kongese seemed devastated right from the onset and her mental and physical fatigue forced her to retire midway through the second set.
With a strong possibility of Nehwal playing the Chinese world number three and last year's Worlds runner-up Xin Wang, she will have to be at her strongest mentally, and according to coach Gopichand, keep up the quick movement and the footwork of the first two games in order to win.
Should the Indian World No 6 run into the Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva instead, after the late night pre-quarters match determines her next opponent, the slowness of the shuttles means it will be absolutely essential that Nehwal stays nimble on her feet and alert on the run if she hopes to better her quarterfinals appearance at a World Championship that she managed in the last two editions.
“The most important thing for Saina in tomorrow's match will be the quickness of her movement on court. If she has a positive start to the game she can go on to win,” coach P Gopichand said.
If she indeed does run into her Chinese opponent in the quarterfinal, the match will be an extremely important one according to Gopichand. She had lost to Chinese Shixian Wang in the quarterfinals of the World Championships in Paris and to Lin Wang at Hyderbad in 2009 and Friday's encounter will be crucial in terms of crossing the mental barrier of beating a Chinese opponent in a big tournament.
With easy victories in the first two encounters, Saina has spent less than an hour on the Wembley Arena courts before qualifying for the quarterfinals. Her 21-3, 13-5 passage past Pui Yin Yip lasted for only 20 minutes, thus depriving her of a real test before the quarterfinals. This, however, will be an advantage for Saina as far as Gopichand is concerned.
Should she face off against her, Xin Wang will prove to be quite a challenge having proved to be Saina's bane on three previous occasions in the Malaysian Open. But none of the past results will matter as Gopichand will be looking to focus on the job at hand. “We are not concerned with the earlier defeats or victories. We have put in some good work in the last five weeks where Saina has not played any competitive tournaments. She will be fresh for Friday.”
While Saina was dismantling her opponent shot by shot, her compatriot Ajay Jayaram was battling it out against defending champion and world number 6 Chen Jin — a match that he eventually lost 21-18, 12-21, 11-21. Jwala Gutta and V Diju also couldn't get past the fifth seeded Denmark pair of Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen and lost 9-21, 15-21 in a 34 minutes.
Strong show by Wei
Top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia sailed through a potentially tricky test by beating South Korean Park Sung-hwan to book a place in the quarter-finals with a crushing 21-10, 21-5 victory.
In last year's tournament in Paris, ninth-seeded Park had put out defending champion Lin Dan and was regarded as a dangerous floater. But Chong Wei was at the top of his formidable game, brushing the Korean aside in 29 minutes.Jwala and Diju lose
In mixed doubles, Jwala Gutta and V. Diju couldn't get past the fifth-seeded English pair of Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen in the third round. They lost 9-21, 15-21 in 34 minutes.
World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei and Olympic champion Lin Dan moved closer to a dream final when they reached the quarterfinals in contrasting styles. Lee was in brilliant form while scoring a 21-11, 21-5 victory over Park Sung-Hwan, the ninth-seeded Korean.
Lin, however, had to work hard to win 21-16, 21-13 against Lee Hyun-Il, the 12th seeded Korean.
Important results:
Men: Third round: 1-Lee Chong Wei (Mal) bt 9-Park Sung-Hwan (Kor) 21-11, 21-5; 2- Lin Dan (Chn) bt 12-Lee Hyun-Il (Kor) 21-16, 21-13; 3-Peter Gade (Den) bt 13-Simon Santoso (Ina) 21-18, 14-21, 21-14; 6-Chen Jin (Chn) bt Ajay Jayaram (Ind) 18-21, 21-12, 21-11.
Women: Third round: 6-Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt 14-Pui Yin Yip (Hkg) 21-3, 13-5, retd.; 1-Wang Shixian (Chn) bt 10-Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (Tha) 21-7, 21-11; Pi Hongyan (Fra) bt 16-Sayako Sato (Jpn) 21-18, 21-14.
Doubles: Second round: Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponnappa bt 2-Wen Hsing Cheng & Yu Chin Chien (Tai) 21-18, 21-18.
Mixed doubles:
Third round: 5-Joachim Fischer Nielsen & Christinna Pedersen (Eng) bt 16-V. Diju & Jwala Gutta 21-9, 21-15.
