Saina enters quarterfinal of Singapore Open

Ace Shuttler Saina Nehwal staved off a scare from Indonesian Adrianti Firdasari in a thrilling three-game match to reach the women’s singles quarterfinals of the Singapore Open Super Series in Singapore City on Thursday. Sixth seed Saina beat 19th ranked Firdasari 21-18 17-21 21-17 in a 50-minute battle to set up a clash with third seed Chinese Lin Wang on Friday.

Wang,who is world number four,beat Korean Hye Youn Hwang 21-10 21-10 in another pre-quarterfinal match. In the tooth and nail battle,Saina was lagging behind 7-8 in the first game but the Hyderabadi shuttler held her nerves and first drew parity at 9-9 and then opened up a lead of five points at 17-12. Her Indonesian rival,however,narrowed the gap to 19-18 before Saina raced away sealing the game 21-18.

In the second game,Saina marched ahead with a 6-3 lead but Firdasari came from behind and made it 7-11 and although Saina played her heart out,she could not but see the game slip through her fingers at 17-21. Saina again opened up a 4-1 lead in the last game and although her Indonesian counterpart drew parity at 9-9 and 11-11,the world number 7 Indian kept the pressure on and after moving 15-12,16-13 and 18-15,finally sealed the match at 21-16.