Saina Nehwal brushes aside Petya Nedelcheva in second round of Indonesia Open Premier Super Series
India’s Saina Nehwal brushed aside Bulgaria’s Petya Nedelcheva in the Women’s Singles second round of the Indonesia Open Premier Super Series 2011, in Indonesia, on Thursday, June 23.
World Number 4 Saina, who is the defending champion in this event, took only 31 minutes to send Nedelcheva packing in a straight-set match.
Nedelcheva opened the first game in a spirited fashion as she played with great pace against the higher ranked Saina, who was a bit slow in the start. The score reached 4-4, and that's where the Indian started moving with a bit more agility. Saina increased the pace of her shots as well, to put the Bulgarian under pressure.
The Indian managed a good lead of 9-6 against the lower ranked shuttler from Bulgaria. However, Nedelcheva pulled back three points and brought the score to 9-10. At the interval, Saina had a two-point lead at 11-9.
After the break, the Bulgarian levelled the game at 13-13 by playing impressive badminton. At this stage, the Indian employed every stroke she had in her arsenal, but failed to create a gap between herself and the opponent. As a result, Nedelcheva progressed with similar pace and reached 17-17. At this stage, the Indian utilised her experience and managed to clinch the set by a 21-18 margin, in 18 minutes.
Saina showed no mercy to Nedelcheva in the second game as she played at her best to create a big gap of 11-5 in the opening half. The Indian was keeping the pace high to build more and more pressure on her opponent, who became a little slow in the second set.
After the break, Saina continued winning points without any interval and reached 18-8. Nedelcheva lost her focus as she failed to judge the pace of the bird and made too many errors in the second half of the game.
Saina finished up the second game in just 13 minutes, by a dramatic difference of 21-9. The 31-minute straight-set battle ended with a scoreline of 21-18 and 21-9.
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