Saina Nehwal narrowly wins Women’s Singles first round of All England Open Premier Super Series 2012
India’s ace Saina Nehwal started her campaign in a quivering way as she remained struggling against Thailand’s Sapsiree Taerattanachai in Women’s Singles first round of All England Open Premier Super Series 2012 on Wednesday, March 7, in England.
The World Number 4 Saina, who is the fourth seed in Women’s Singles draw of the championship, had to dig into her reserves to produce better strokes and won against the lower ranked Thai opponent in three games.
On the other hand, Sapsiree put up wonderful show of attacking badminton and stretched her higher ranked Indian opponent to three games but failed to prove her worth in the last set and lost the match with a reasonable margin.
In the opening set, Saina started her run in a dominating way as she played with precision and managed to put her opponent under pressure.
She remained on track and set up a wonderful lead until the one-minute interval in the opening half of first game.
After the one-minute break, the Indian remained positive and played composed badminton which helped her to take the first set with a remarkable 21-11 score on the board.
However, it was a different story in the second game where Sapsiree changed her tactics to tackle the aggression of her higher ranked Indian rival.
She played with precision and pushed Saina on back foot by playing dominating game at net. Until the interval, the Thai lady was moving ahead on the score board.
After the break, Saina tried to play fast badminton by accelerating her speed but failed to break the rhythm of her Thai opponent and lost the set with a huge margin of 13-21.
In the deciding set, Saina became quicker as she played fast game from the starting points and remained successful in setting up a good lead until the one-minute break.
After the break, she continued her impressive play without showing any mercy to her lower ranked Thai challenger and won the set with a striking margin of 21-13.
Saina bagged the first-round match in three games by a 21-11, 13-21 and 21-13 score on the board.
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