Saina Nehwal, the world’s number 11 Badminton player defeated the Dinar Dyah Ayustine of Indonesia on Thursday and entered the quarter-finals of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament.
The match lasted for one hour and two minutes. Saina was expected to win the match easily but her Indonesian opponent gave her the tough competition which made the clash interesting.
Saina could not take the lead in the first game of the second round as Ayustine was not giving any freebies away and outplayed Saina with 17-21.
In the second game Saina looked more comfortable and opened with a huge lead of 12-4, but Ayustine made a brilliant comeback and equalised the score to 18-18. The Indonesian shuttler was playing fiercely and at one point we thought that she would lose the match but she displayed some brilliant shuttle play and won with 21-18.
Though, both the players were desperate to win but Saina owned the third match of the second round. She played the final game keeping her nerves calm and gave the Indonesian some strong shuttle play which restricted Ayustine to score any easy points. Saina keeping herself calm and composed increased the lead and after winning the game with 21-12, she moved into the quarterfinals of the Macau Open 2016.
Saina Nehwal has not been able to produce the world class performances she used to give since her knee surgery in August. She may have reached the quarterfinals but she will have to up her game to survive the next round.
1 December 2016
Avni S. Singh