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Jakarta: Saina Nehwal’s pursuit for a third Indonesia Open title suffered a mild jolt in the second round against Indonesian lightweight Aprilla Yuswandari, but the world No.5 Indian recovered from a second-game loss to enter the quarterfinals on Thursday. She will now take on world No.3 Wang Shixian, the Chinese girl whom she beat in the final of the Swiss Open GP Gold earlier this year. Meanwhile, her young compatriot PV Sindhu ran into eighth seed Juliane Schenk who had all the answers to her and decimated her challenge 21-14 21-14.
The big story of the day was six-time champion Taufik Hidayat’s exit from the tournament at the hands of his teammate Sony Dwi Kuncoro. Taufik was bundled out in quick time, 21-14 21-18 by his compatriot, who just a year ago was languishing beyond the world’s top-100 rankings due to injury.
Among the Indians, Ajay Jayaram saw his campaign end in the second round. He ran up against Indonesia’s Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka and the match lasted just 35 minutes. Rumbaka won 21-15 21-14.
Saina took nearly an hour to quell Yuswandari’s challenge. The early part of the match had the two neck-and-neck, as Yuswandari frequently surprised Saina with her deceptive flicks and drops, opening up the court for her hard smashes. It was level until 14, and then the Indian stepped up a gear and closed out the game.
Yuswandari though refused to lie low. Fighting for every point, the Indonesian managed to get five points in a row from 10-all, and steadily increased the gap to take the match to a decider.
If the Indian was demoralized, she didn’t allow it to affect her game. She shot off to a big lead early on, and even though Yuswandari frequently surprised her with her power and deception, the Indian’s defence was strong enough to counter all that Yuswandari threw at her.
