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Saina Nehwal beat World No. 5 Wang Yihan 21-19, 21-6 in the quarterfinal of the All England Championship. The World No. 3 did not let her poor record against the Chinese deter her in any way during the match which lasted just 39 minutes.
Saina started the match well taking a 2-0 lead before Yihan came back to take 6 straight points and control the set. However, the girl from Hisar did not fret one bit and slowly chomped away at her opponent’s lead and headed into the break trailing by just 1 point.
Analysts would want to know what coach Vimal Kumar said to Saina at the break as trailing 12-13, Saina stormed her way past Yihan to establish a commanding 18-13 lead and eventually sealed the set at 21-19.
Saina improved her record against Yihan
Saina, now, had a fantastic opportunity to make ammends for her terrible head-to-head record against the Chinese. Prior to this match, Yihan led the record 8-1, with the only time the Indian winning was in the 2012 Denmark Open when Yihan was forced to retire with the score 12-21, 7-12.
The second set was a straight-forward affair for the Olympic bronze-medallist as she, figuratively, threw her opponent off the court when she took an 8-0 lead at the start. Saina did not let go off that lead till the end and sealed the game 21-6 and the match in a little over half an hour.
She will now face another Chinese opponent Sun Yu, who won her match against Ratchanok Intanon after the Indonesian retired late in the third set. Saina and Sun have faced each other only two times, with each player winning 1 time. Sun won in the China Open in 2013, while Saina got the better of her at the 2014 Australian Open.
