Saina Nehwal reaches Indonesian Open Final
Defending champion and India’s most successful badminton player Saina Nehwal moved an inch closer in retaining the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton title. Saina seeded 4th in the competition will be looking to grab this title for the third successive time.
Saina beat Shao Chieh Cheng of Chinese Taipei 21-14, 14-21, 21-17 in the semifinals which lasted 45 minutes. Cheng created quite a flutter by defeating heavyweight players in the previous rounds. She managed to defeat Shixian Wang who was the top seed in the competition she also upstaged seventh seed Xin Liu. Saina wasn’t at her best before the tournament began, she lost in the second round to Chieh Cheng a week ago in the Singapore open. This was a kind of revenge for Saina and she was too good for Cheng.
The match was a tight affair with both the players giving their all, to book a place in the finals. In the opening game Saina showed her class by taking seven successive points and bagging the set. But in the second set Chieh Cheng fought back and Saina lost her momentum, which ultimately cost her set. In the final or deciding set Saina kept her composure and kept on hitting smashes which Chieh Cheng was unable to cope with.
Saina will face Yihan Wang in the finals who is the 3rd seed in this competition. Yihan Wang reached the finals by beating Yanjio Jiang in the other semi final. The final will be on 26th June, 2011 where Saina will be carrying the hopes of billions of Indians. We wish her all the luck.
Tags: Badminton, Final, India, Indonesian Open, Saina Nehwal, Shao Chieh Cheng
