Aug. 26: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarter-finals of the World Badminton Championships, beating Russia’s Ella Diehl in straight games here on Thursday. The second seeded Indian tamed the 13th seed Diehl 21-14 21-18 in the third round of the women’s singles event.
But minutes before the start of Saina’s match, world number one and top seed Yihan Wang of China was stunned by Japan’s Eriko Hirose in a three-game thriller that lasted 75 minutes. Hirose won 20-22, 21-16, 21-18. Saina was aggressive from the start and kept the pace slow and killed the game in mid court. Within minutes of the start Saina was off to a 10-5 lead as Diehl made errors at the net. “I wouldn’t say that the first game was easy. I felt better than my second round game and I did control the play. I know she would have liked to play long rallies because thats her strength and I didn’t allow that,” Saina said after the match.
“I think I am more comfortable with the conditions now. But it’s going to get tougher now as higher seeded players will come through but I am prepared,” she said. Saina will next play either 11th seed Jie Yao of the Netherlands or China’s sixth seed Shixian Wang on Friday. Meanwhile, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost their women’s doubles third round match to South Korea’s Ha Jung Eun and Kim Min Jung 14-21, 15-21. However, Jwala paired up with V. Diju to sail into the quarters of the mixed doubles event, beating the Singapore duo of Chayut Triyachart and Lei Yao 14-21, 21-18, 21-14. They now play South Korea’s Ko Sung Hyun and Ha Jung Eun for a place in semis.