Indonesia Open: Saina Nehwal narrowly beats Aprilla Yuswandari in Women’s Singles round-of-16
India’s Saina Nehwal continued her dominating performance and secured her place in Women’s Singles quarter-final after narrowly beating Indonesia’s Aprilla Yuswandari in round-of-16 clash at the Indonesia Open Premier Super Series 2012 in Jakarta, on Thursday,
June 14.
The impressive Saina, who is World Number 5 and fifth seeded player in the draw of Indonesia Open, employed all of her skills to overpower her lower ranked Indonesian rival in a close fight.
The higher ranked Nehwal, who has recently won the Women’s Singles title at Thailand Open GP Gold, continued her winning run and reached at the top-eight stage by beating Aprilla in three-set contest by taking 59 minutes.
On the other hand, despite losing the match the un-seeded Aprilla cheered her home fans by putting up strong resistance and taking a game against the fifth seeded Indian shuttler. The Indonesian lost the battle in rubber games with a reasonable score on
the board.
In the first game, Nehwal tried to take advantage in the starting points but failed as her local opponent played tremendous badminton.
Until the break, the higher ranked Nehwal was just ahead of Aprilla at 11-10 until the mid-game interval.
After the break, Nehwal geared up her speed and manipulated the loopholes of her rival. She played with precision while remaining focused in the court and took the game with a 21-17 score on the board.
In the following game, both ladies again played sensational badminton in the opening half and the score remained close until the break.
After the interval, Nehwal lost her focus and committed many uncharacteristic errors and eventually lost the game to her Indonesian opponent with a huge difference of 14-21.
In the deciding game, Nehwal came into the court in an aggressive mood as she played attacking badminton and established a staggering lead of 11-5 until the break.
After the mid-game interval, the higher ranked Indian lady continued her positive and controlled play in the court and won the set with a super 21-13 margin on the board.
Nehwal overpowered Aprilla in 59 minutes in a thrilling rubber-set encounter with a reasonable score of 21-17, 14-21 and 21-13.
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