Faced with an opponent who chose to retaliate in kind every time Saina Nehwal mounted an attack on her in the Indonesian Super series pre-quarters,

Friday , Jun 19, 2009 at 0227 hrs IST

Sporty India Updated

Faced with an opponent who chose to retaliate in kind every time Saina Nehwal mounted an attack on her in the Indonesian Super series pre-quarters, the 19-year-old Indian did more than out-numbering Juliane Schenk’s smashes on Thursday. Drawing the German, ranked 16, into longer rallies in the second, Nehwal absorbed Schenk’s offensive before asserting her dominance in a laboured 18-21 21-7 21-19 win at the the Isatora Senayan stadium in Jakarta.

Having lost the first game 21-18 to unforced errors in the last two points, Nehwal forced her opponent to run around plenty in the second, tiring her out as she took the sting out of Schenk’s attack.

In the decider, Nehwal was forced to play catch-up till 16-all as the 26-year-old German showed no signs of relenting, before the Indian world No 8 could break away, and down her rival.

Sixth seeded Nehwal next plays Korean Hye Youn Hwang — who upset Chen Wang, seeded fourth, in three sets. “I’ve never played the Korean before, but she’s a tough opponent, and it’ll be a match with a lot of rallies and running around,” Nehwal said, of her entry-way quarters encounter into a possible semi-finals of a prestigious Super Series event. Recovery will be the key as both players were involved in tedious three-setters. Saina Nehwal slipped one place to 8 in the latest rankings, while Chetan Anand went down to 15. While Anup Sridhar moved up marginally to 36, the others in the top 50 included Aravind Bhat (27), P Kashyap (32) and Anand Pawar (44). India’s mixed doubles pairing of V Diju and Jwala Gutta jumped up to 8 in the world.

Aditi crumbles

ADITI Mutatkar went to pieces during her 21-8, 21-5 loss to old nemesis Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia in a 22-minute blitzkrieg over the Indian. The 22-year-old Indian shuttler, ranked 36 currently, was completely outplayed as she won less than a fourth of the rallies played against an opponent who she’d lost to from being match-point up at the Bitburger Open last year. “It was a humiliating loss, but she was too good for me today,” said Mutatkar, who was reluctant to blame her still-recovering knee for the defeat. “It wasn’t paining, but the fear has stuck in the mind and sometimes I’m apprehensive of hurting it again, so the entire focus shifts to worrying about the knee rather than concentrating on the game,” she said.

Schenk had started with a bang, and was relentless in her attack through the 47-minute match, when she over-took Nehwal at 17-16, matching smash for smash to push ahead and gain the advantage in the opener. With the faster side of the court inducing errors, Nehwal changed tactics and took off from 7-7 to assume control of the game as she levelled a set each while warding off the faster drives of the German rival.

“Schenk plays a good attacking game, and hits very well. But in the second I ensured she was made to run around, and she couldn’t match my pace as the rallies got her,” Nehwal said as she won 14 points in a row to wrap up the second 21-7.