Badminton Asia Championships: Xiao Jia Chen upsets Saina Nehwal in Women’s Singles pre-quarter-final
China’s upcoming young player Xiao Jia Chen proved her mettle when she made biggest upset by defeating India’s Saina Nehwal in the Women’s Singles pre-quarter-final encounter at the Badminton Asia Championships 2012 at Qingdao, China, on Thursday, April
19.
The lower ranked and un-seeded Xiao Jia showed impressive performance in her round-of-16 battle and won it against the World Number 5 Saina, who was seeded at number five in the tournament.
The young Chinese put up a gutsy performance and managed to chuck out her Indian opponent in straight sets with a comprehensive margin on the board.
Saina, who was the favourite to win this contest, was stunned with the perfect play of her lower ranked Chinese opponent.
The higher ranked Indian shuttler had no answer to the spirited play of Xiao Jia and crashed out without taking any set.
The start of the match was quite entertaining for Chinese fans when Xiao Jia showed her impressive craft against Saina and took an impressive lead in the early points of first game.
The impressive Chinese was in superb form and did not spare any chance for her Indian opponent to take charge of the game at any stage.
On the other hand, Saina tried to control the pace of rallies but failed to dictate her lower ranked opponent at any stage.
The Indian shuttler could not stop Xiao Jia from setting up a wonderful lead until the mid-game break in opening set.
After the one-minute break, Xiao Jia continued her aggressive play in the court as she did not drop her speed at any stage of the game and maintained her upper hand over Saina who could not live up to expectations at all.
Xiao Jia remained consistent in taking points and managed to win the set with a one-sided margin of 21-13.
In the second game, Saina played well and managed to find a good flow in opening rallies. However, she again failed to dominate the pace as Xiao Jia was in superb control.
Xiao Jia perfectly placed her powerful shots in all areas of the court and managed to win the second set by a 21-16 score on the board.
The in-form Xiao Jia emerged as the winner against Saina with a remarkable score of 21-13 and 21-16.
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