World Badminton Championship: Saina Nehwal advances to quarterfinals

Saina Nehwal of India competes against Juliane Schenk of Germany during the Indonesia Open Super Series 2013 women’s singles semi-final on June 15, 2013 in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Getty Images)

India’s Saina Nehwal rallied from an opening game reverse to outduel 15^th seed Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand 18-21, 21-16, 21-14 to advance to the women’s singles quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships in Guangzhou.

The Indian seemed to be have started on a good note, leading before the 18^th ranked Thai shuttler match her in all departments of the game to march ahead. Porntip played the closing points better to win the first game at 21-18.

Trailing by a game, Saina needed to dig deep into her reserves and she did just that – unsettling her opponents on both flanks to gain the upper hand in the second game.

The Indian badminton icon won seven points on the trot to hold the advantage midway through the second game before delivering the killer punch to close it out 21-16.

The Indian, who retained her last week’s ranking of number three in the latest World Badminton Federation (WBF) rankings, grew in confidence in the third game and started dictating terms to her Thai opponent.

She led 14-12 at one stage before garnering a slew of points to comfortably lead Porntip 18-14 before performing the last rites at 21-14.

This was Saina’s sixth consecutive win over Porntip. Her last win against the same opponent came at the 2012 Thailand Open, where the Indian won in straight sets.

Saina had earlier defeated 66th Russian Olga Golovanova 21-15, 21-4 in the second round. She received a bye in her first round.

She will now face the winner of the match between Japan’s Sayaka Takahashi and 13^th seed Yeon Ju Bae of Korea in the quarterfinals.