Saina Nehwal ousts Sung Ji Hyun to land a title berth at Indonesia Open Premier Super Series 2012
India’s badminton star Saina Nehwal made her fans proud as she landed a title berth after beating Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun in Women’s Singles semi-final of the Indonesia Open Premier Super Series 2012 in Jakarta, on Saturday, June 16.
The fifth seeded Saina, who has been playing at her best in the current year, reached into her second consecutive final in a period of two weeks.
The World Number 5 Saina won the Thailand Open GP Gold last week in Bangkok and now she penetrated into the final of Indonesia Open which indicates that she is at her very best ahead of London Olympics.
While playing in the semi-final contest against the World Number 10 Ji Hyun, the higher ranked India played to her maximum potential and won the match after an interesting fight of 50 minutes.
On the other hand, the lower ranked Korean played wonderful badminton in both games but remained unlucky in the concluding points and eventually lost to her Indian opponent in straight games with a tight score.
In the first game, Saina proved her supremacy in the court by playing at her best as she was dictating the pace of rallies.
The impressive attacking play of the India disturbed the flow of Ji Hyun who made many unforced errors and was trailing behind Saina until the one-minute interval.
After the break, the Korean played better badminton and managed to level the score by reaching at 17-17.
The Korean reached at 20-19 but failed to take the set point as Saina came from behind and scored three points in a row to grab the game with a 22-20 score on the board.
In the second game, the score remained close in the opening half as both ladies played impressive badminton while remaining positive and focused in the court.
After the break, Ji Hyun again managed to take a reasonable lead but failed to maintain it as Saina played attacking badminton and took the set with a decent score of 21-18.
The higher ranked Saina won this semi-final contest in 50 minutes with a 22-20 score on the board.
In the title match, Saina will take on Li Xuerui of China who defeated her top seeded compatriot Wang Yihan in the other semi-final encounter.
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