Dubai, December 19
Saina Nehwal continued her rampaging run to storm into the semifinals of the World Superseries Finals, clinching a three-game thriller against Bae Yeon Ju of Korea.
The world No. 4 bounced back from a game down to notch up a 15-21 21-7 21-17 win over Bae, ranked eighth, in the third and final round-robin match to top Group A.
The match began, as expected, with long rallies consisting of sharp angled drops and smashes. Saina brought a sort of new-found aggression in her game as she didn't shy away from attacking the net and tried to dictate the rallies, pushing Bae to commit errors. The Indian’s game-plan worked as she took a 10-4 lead. The Korean grabbed three points at the net, the last one with a brilliant drop, to narrow the gap.
After the breather, Bae tightened her defence and dug deep in the rallies. She pushed the Saina, a finalist in 2011, to make mistakes. The Korean clawed back at 14-14 before winning the game.
In the second game, Saina once again lead 6-2. Bae played some exceptional shots to make it 6-6. At 12-6, the duo got engaged in a gruelling rally consisting of 32 shots and Saina had the last laugh. She continued her dominance, bagging 15 of the last 16 points. In the decider, Bae surged ahead to a lead of 5-1. Saina brought out her power smash to break the streak and then finished a long rally with a low lift at the net. Both the players tried to outdo each other but the Korean entered the interval with a slender 11-10 lead. In a battle of attrition, Saina managed to open up a narrow lead of 15-13. The Korean hit one wide and Saina then grabbed another point to lead 17-13. The Korean made it 16-19. Saina, however, didn't delay the inevitable further as she produced two smashes to shut the door on the Korean.— PTI