Saina Nehwal shines brighter than Sun Yu; advances at Australian Open

Nehwal takes immense pride in her ability to outlast any challenger, for that is at the core of her successful march to the top of the ranking charts. Against Sun Yu, the most lethal of these sparky youngsters at the houseful Australian Super Series teeming with all the top players, Saina Nehwal would’ve enjoyed having the final word.

The Chinese have talked up the 21-year-old Sun Yu a fair bit owing to her steady temperament and 6- feet-plus reach. At her career-best No.9 in rankings, the youngster handpicked from Liaoning, a province in north-eastern China’s Manchuria, is the next-best-thing from the shuttle powerhouse.

In their first meeting, during Nehwal’s wretched 2013 run, Sun Yu threw a nasty surprise at the Indian, winning in a 75-minute three-setter. Ever since, Nehwal has been on her toes and relishes the prolonged, drawn out battles that the two seem to revel in, making a point of her superior fitness against the youngster.

They average a playing time of over an hour each time they’ve battled, but Nehwal’s gritted it out every time – save the first – and as such the Indian’s turnaround last season could be said to have started with a first-round marathon at the same venue against the same opponent.

It had felt like a final, she had quipped last year catching her breath after a stiff 75 minute lung-opener at Sydney before she clinched the title. She’s come to expect lung-bursters every time she draws the tall Chinese girl.

On Thursday, this time in the second round at Australia, Nehwal played the longest of her five matches against Sun (she leads her 3-1 in career-scores). It was an hour and 18-minute long affair which ended 21-19, 19-21, 21-14 pushing Nehwal into the quarters but the match shared familiar contours with the last few face-offs that are forming a pattern.

It’s in the crucial finishing points of a set that Nehwal employs her experience asserting herself while putting the younger Sun Yu under pressure. Her famous doggedness – that was in evidence at the Sudirman Cup – in closing out games where weaker, tentative players falter, saw her negotiate that tricky 18-all opening set phase of matches.

Flexing muscle, stamina

With the lead in her pocket, she could’ve said to have expended energy in the second and flubbed a 18-15 lead in the second, but by the time the decider came around, Saina Nehwal was flexing her superior stamina and fitness, that makes her a sturdy No 1, as against a vulnerable brittle table-topper.

Sun Yu was a flattened force in the third – her tamest resistance of the match, as the Indian cleared the tall hurdle with a loping leap in the end.

Nehwal can expect yet another marathon from the original slugger Shixian Wang, with whom she has a storied past of long matches in the quarters on Friday.

Beating two Chinese back to back has been the hallmark of her title conquests. But in the Australian defense, and up against her contemporary – their games were once mirror images minus Saina’s smash – Nehwal will get down to business after silencing the upstart who chooses the longest routes while stalking her.