Competition: All England Open Badminton Championships
Venue: Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham
Category: Superseries Premier
Date: Friday, 10th March, 2017
Time: (6) PV Sindhu vs (1) Tai Tzu Ying at 9.30pm IST (8) Saina Nehwal vs (3) Sung Ji Hyun at 10.30pm IST
Channel: Star Sports 2, Star Sports HD 2
Live streaming: Star Sports Hotstar, All England Badminton Youtube
(6) PV Sindhu vs (1) Tai Tzu Ying
Head-to-head: Tai leads 5-3
This is a tough match-up for Sindhu. While the Indian relies on pace and aggression, the Chinese Taipei shuttler makes use of finesse and deft touches and is very much regarded as the Martina Hingis of the badminton world.
Tai has the ability to absorb pace from her opponents well and doesn’t allow her hard-hitting rivals to play their natural game. That is exactly how she denied Sindhu the Hong Kong Open title last November.
However, the Indian did beat her on her way to winning the silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games. Tai did play a draining opening game against Minatsu Mitani of Japan in her second round at this year’s All England Championships, though. If that match has some effect and if Sindhu can capitalise on it for a fast start, the balance might just tilt in the World No. 6’s favour.
(8) Saina Nehwal vs (3) Sung Ji Hyun
Head-to-head: Nehwal leads 6-1
On paper, this is a good match-up for Saina Nehwal. She has won six of their seven meetings with the solitary loss coming way back in 2013 at the Denmark Open in a tight three-game match.
It, however, needs to be remembered that the Korean is enjoying a rich vein of form currently and reached the final of the Dubai World Superseries Finals in December. For the last few months, she has been playing fantastic attacking defence because of which she has managed to be so successful. There’s no doubt that there is a lot more conviction in her game now.
Saina’s movement will be thoroughly tested by the World No. 3 in this match. The 2015 runner-up did beat Sung in their most recent showdown at the Premier Badminton League in January. If she can summon that same courage, there is no reason why she cannot book a semi-final berth.
