2012 French Open: Saina Nehwal confounds Han Li in opening round of Women’s Singles event
India’s badminton queen Saina Nehwal raised her chances to excel in the Yonex French Badminton Open after beating Han Li in the first round on October 24, 2012.
This Women’s Singles tussle was staged at local badminton complex of Paris and it kept both contenders busy on court for 59 minutes before ending with final figures of 21-11, 16-21 and 21-19.
Though, World Number three Saina put a fluctuated performance but still she locked the honour by prevailing in the opening and closing segments of this showdown.
On the other hand, Han Li also showed great fighting spirit and earned great deal of respect despite of facing an early exit from this Super Series.
Saina, who is top seeded shuttler of the tournament, bagged first match point with great ease but she had to face strong resistance in ending two games.
In first set of the match, she employed interesting tactics and cornered her lower ranked rival in all areas of the game.
The seasoned Indian campaigner kept a low profile in the beginning and gradually reached to a commanding position of 11-8 but she stunned her challenger by adding six consecutive points in her total immediately after the break.
Han Li could not come out of this deficit and surrendered after reading an overwhelming score of 11-21.
The Chinese female shuttler did not remain at lower end permanently and managed to make amends by claiming the second match point on merit.
This time she did not repeat the previous mistakes and gained an early advantage with 6-1 total. Han Li played with great conviction and put her challenger under huge pressure by placing 11-5 margin.
Later part of the game saw Saina Nehwal making fatal mistakes which ultimately led her to a 16-21 defeat.
With this development, third set became crucial as both contenders were standing equal in match score position.
They chased each other all the way to game point situation and this neck-and-neck tussle ended when Saina registered a winning figure of 21-19.
Now the Indian shuttler is scheduled to meet Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand and a win will take her into the quarter-final round.
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