Saina beats Xin to end downward spiral

Liu Zhou (China): After a long streak of poor form, Saina Nehwal finally turned things around in the last tournament of 2011, beating world No.3 Wang Xin in straight games (21-17 22-20) in her last group match of the Superseries Finals at Liu Zhou, China, on Friday.Saina’s speed and powerplay put to rest all speculations on her downward slide. She hasn’t reached a major final since the Indonesian Open Superseries, and has in fact suffered losses to players ranked way below her. On Friday, however, Saina was at her best — smashing powerfully, retrieving endlessly, and putting pressure on her Chinese opponent until she cracked.It was Wang who dominated the early exchanges, as her steep left-handed shots caught Saina short time and again at the forecourt. Saina established a 17-13 lead but Xin equalised at 17, until Xin misjudged a couple of high shuttles and the Indian surged ahead for the first game.The second looked set to go Saina’s way as she led throughout. Her powerful smashes had Xin struggling, and the Indian was able to open up spaces around the forecourt. At 19-16, it looked like Saina’s match, but the Indian suddenly made a string of errors to give the Chinese game point at 20-19. The Indian refused to buckle and anothe body smash gave her match point. The Chinese girl fluffed a dribble to give Saina her first big win in several months. She now goes into her semifinal with Dane Tine Baun as the favourite. A win on Saturday will make her the first Indian singles player to reach the final of the year-ending tournament.Catch our live commentary of the Saina vs Wang Xin match here:

https://www.sportskeeda.com/2011/12/16/live-streaming-world-superseries-finals-saina-nehwal-vs-wang-xin/