Indonesia Masters 2018: Saina Nehwal creates new record after reaching final in Jakarta

Indian shuttle queen Saina Nehwal’s love affair with the city of Jakarta in Indonesia continues. The Indonesian capital proved to be her happy hunting ground once again as she reached her sixth BWF final in the city after beating the World No. 4 Ratchanok Intanon 21-19, 21-19 at the Indonesia Masters semi-finals on Saturday.

With this, she has reached more finals in Jakarta than any other city outside India.

Saina’s first Superseries triumph was at the Indonesia Open in 2009, where she beat Wang Lin in the final. She successfully defended her title the next year when she beat Japan’s Sayaka Sato and added yet another title at the same place in 2012 when she edged Li Xuerui in three gruelling games.

Other than the three wins, the former World No. 1 also finished as runner-up at the same tournament in 2011 when Wang Yihan prevailed over her.

Saina’s fifth final in Jakarta was in 2015 when she lost the World Championships final to Carolina Marin.

First Indian female shuttler in Indonesia Masters final

On Sunday, the 27-year-old, who has beaten three-top-10 players this week, will attempt to win her fourth title in the city when she takes on the top seed and World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying. Should she win, it will also make her the first Indian female shuttler to win this event.

Prior to this, only HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth have reached the summit clash of this tournament. While Prannoy reigned supreme in 2014, Srikanth succumbed to a three-game defeat to Tommy Sugiarto in the final in 2015.

Satwik and Chirag go down

The brilliant giant-killing run of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came to an end in the semi-finals on Saturday as they went down 14-21, 11-21 to the top seeds and World No. 1 pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia.

The India No. 1 men’s doubles team had accounted for two top-10 pairs and one top-20 pair on their way to the last-four stage.