Asia Badminton Championship: Saina Nehwal silences Shixian Wang, in semi

Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal continued her consistent run on the international circuit, reaching yet another semifinal at the $200,000 Asia Badminton Championship at Wuhan, China, on Friday.

In a battle of long rallies, the 26-year-old Indian held her nerves in tricky situations to eke out a 21-16, 21-19 win over former world champion Shixian Wang of China in the women’s singles quarterfinal.

The world no. 8 Indian, who had registered semi-final finishes in the Swiss Grand Prix Gold, the India Super Series and the Malaysia Super Series Premier Open before skipping the Singapore Open, will take on the winner of the match between Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara and China’s Yihan Wang.

In the opening game, Saina led 3-0 and held a narrow 11-10 advantage at the break but pocketed four straight points to reach 15-10. After a battle for supremacy, Shixian narrowed it down to 16-17.

Saina soon grabbed the opening game after gaining a healthy four-point game point advantage and sealed it when Shixian misjudged a shuttle and left that at the baseline.

In the second game, Saina committed a series of unforced errors to allow Shixian narrow the lead to 5-6. A good net exchange saw Saina draw parity to 16-16. They moved neck-and-neck till 19-19. A net error by the Chinese then gave Saina the lead and with Shixian hitting another return at the net meant the Indian was celebrating.