Defending champion Saina Nehwal emerged as the lone Indian survivor at the $700,000 China Open Super Series Premier after P.V.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal emerged as the lone Indian survivor at the $700,000 China Open Super Series Premier after P.V. Sindhu suffered a close defeat in the pre-quarter-finals of the women’s singles competition here on Thursday.
Top seed Saina, who had a 2-0 record against Tee Jing Yi ahead of the match, notched up a 21-10, 19-21, 21-19 win over the world no. 34 Malaysian.
However, two-time World Championship bronze medallist Sindhu blew a first game lead and a 13-7 advantage in the second to lose 21-18, 18-21, 16-21 to Wang Shixian of China in a match that lasted an hour and 28 minutes.
In the first game, Saina didn’t give any chance to Jing in the opening game as she dominated proceedings from the start to pocket the first game.
However, Jing came back strongly in the second match as she fought back from 5-8 and 8-11 deficit to eventually roar back into the contest. In the decider, Jing had opened up a 6-2 lead early on but Saina drew parity at 8-8 and then got engaged in a tough battle with the Malaysian, who held the lead at 15-13 for a brief time before Saina stamped her authority and zoomed ahead.
In the other pre-quarter-final, Sindhu’s 4-3 record against Wang meant little as despite holding the edge early on in the match, she could not cross the finishing line.
