Saina Nehwal dominates Yao Jie to proceed into Women’s Singles quarter-finals – London Olympics
Indian ace Saina Nehwal made her way into quarter-final round of London Olympics after surpassing Women’s Singles expert Yao Jie at Wembley Arena on Wednesday, August 1, 2012.
This pre quarter-final encounter lasted for 40 minutes with a final result of 21-14 and 21-16.
World Number five Saina played impeccable badminton and sealed a straight-set win to setup clash with two-time All England champion Tine Baun of Denmark.
She laid foundation of her victory by claiming the first set and then made best out of this initial advantage to ensure a spot in round of eight.
Meanwhile, the Dutch campaigner was no comparison to the badminton queen and she surrendered tamely in both games.
The 22-year-old Indian player launched a brisk attack in opening game and established an unassailable lead with few valuable points in a row.
She maintained this rhythm in the next couple of rallies and widened the gap before the announcement of one-minute break.
The opposing shuttler could not match her rival’s speed and kept trailing behind all the way to half time. She allowed her competitor to bag the first half with a score of 11 on points table.
World Number 20 Yao Jie put a below par performance also in the second half. She wavered and could not place her strokes in the right areas.
On the other hand, Saina played with great precision and cornered her challenger with masterly crafted strokes.
She raised her lead in third quarter of the set and then magnified the impact by registering winning margin of 21-14.
The fourth seeded shuttler managed to go with the same flow in following game and locked the honour in an impressive manner.
Though, the Dutch player showed some spark in the middle of this part but it was not enough to bring down the opponent in this crucial tie.
Saina, who has been in prime touch right from the beginning of this season, kept her status intact by putting up a commendable show of skills.
She started the ball rolling with couple of back-to-back points and then added valuable points in her total at a steady pace to sweep the table with 21-16 score.
Tags: