BIRMINGHAM: Top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth needed to toil onerous to seal their places within the quarterfinals of the $1 million All England Championships on Thursday.
While Saina rallied her strategy to a 8-21, 21-16, 21-13 win over Denmark's Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt in a 51-minute contest, seventh seed Srikanth recovered from a mid-game slump to register a 21-17, 11-21, 21-12 win over Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie, his first victory over the Indonesian within the remaining three meetings.
Eighth seeded Saina will take on her nemesis and two-time champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, an opponent who defeated her in remaining 12 outings, whilst the 26-year-old Srikanth will face world #1 Kento Momota of Japan, who has overwhelmed the Indian 5 instances remaining season.
A 2015 finalist, Saina was once blown away by world no 19 Line within the opening recreation however the skilled campaigner saved her cool to take the match to the decider and sooner or later come up trumps towards her Danish rival.
"She's a very good player and she fights right until the end. In this tournament I've not felt very well from the start as I've been suffering with diarrhoea but I'm just going on with that," said Saina, who had defeated Scotland's Kristy Gilmour 21-17, 21-18 in her opening match.
"In the first set I felt like I was not able to move as I was feeling really heavy and sluggish. In the second and third set I warmed up a bit more and got into the rhythm. I tried to catch her out as much as possible but it was not easy at all with the condition I'm in."
On her conceivable clash with Tzu Ying, Saina said: "That will be a very tricky match. She is an excellent opponent, she's very good at deception and can catch you out with well-disguised set-plays. It's not easy to play against someone who has such an arsenal of great shots. As I say though, I will try my best."
In different suits, former Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth's combat lasted just 35 mins as he went down 12-21, 17-21 to 24-year-old Ng Ka Long Angus in the second around. It was once his 3rd loss to the World no 15 from Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, Sameer Verma squandered a primary recreation merit to head down combating 21-16, 18-21, 14-21 to former world champion and world #1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark to bow out of the match.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy fought a gruelling fight ahead of shedding 21-16, 26-28, 16-21 to seventh seeded Japanese pair of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto.
Sikki and Pranaav Jerry Chopra, who's coming back from an injury, misplaced 21-23, 17-21 to Hong King's Chang Tak Ching and NG Wing Yung within the blended doubles.
The men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also misplaced 19-21, 21-16, 14-21 to the Chinese mixture of Ou Xuanyi and Ren Xiangyu.
Srikanth, who had disposed off France's Brice Leverdez 21-13 21-11 within the opening around, got here into the second-round match with a 2-Three head-to-head record towards Jonatan.
Srikanth lead Five-0 lead to begin with. Jonatan attempted to dominate the net and narrowed the led to Five-7 ahead of the Indian rode on his deception and a few angled returns to clutch 11-7 merit at the damage.
Srikanth's tricky play saved Jonatan on his ft as he moved to 19-15 with two smashes and went to recreation point when his rival hit lengthy. Two recreation points had been saved by the Indonesian ahead of the Indian unleashed a smash to clutch the bragging rights.
In the second recreation, Jonatan injected extra pace within the rallies and grabbed the first six points. Srikanth was once left to do the catch up act as Jonatan spread out a 11-6 lead at the breather and sooner or later took the match to the decider after changing nine recreation point alternatives.
In the 3rd recreation, Srikanth added extra energy to his strokes whilst Jonatan dedicated easy mistakes to path 2-7. Jonatan then took a scientific timeout due to a problem in his left foot.
On resumption, the Indian grabbed a 11-Four merit at the interval. Srikanth did not permit the sport to slip away after the interval even as Jonatan crumbled.
While Saina rallied her strategy to a 8-21, 21-16, 21-13 win over Denmark's Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt in a 51-minute contest, seventh seed Srikanth recovered from a mid-game slump to register a 21-17, 11-21, 21-12 win over Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie, his first victory over the Indonesian within the remaining three meetings.
Eighth seeded Saina will take on her nemesis and two-time champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, an opponent who defeated her in remaining 12 outings, whilst the 26-year-old Srikanth will face world #1 Kento Momota of Japan, who has overwhelmed the Indian 5 instances remaining season.
A 2015 finalist, Saina was once blown away by world no 19 Line within the opening recreation however the skilled campaigner saved her cool to take the match to the decider and sooner or later come up trumps towards her Danish rival.
"She's a very good player and she fights right until the end. In this tournament I've not felt very well from the start as I've been suffering with diarrhoea but I'm just going on with that," said Saina, who had defeated Scotland's Kristy Gilmour 21-17, 21-18 in her opening match.
"In the first set I felt like I was not able to move as I was feeling really heavy and sluggish. In the second and third set I warmed up a bit more and got into the rhythm. I tried to catch her out as much as possible but it was not easy at all with the condition I'm in."
On her conceivable clash with Tzu Ying, Saina said: "That will be a very tricky match. She is an excellent opponent, she's very good at deception and can catch you out with well-disguised set-plays. It's not easy to play against someone who has such an arsenal of great shots. As I say though, I will try my best."
In different suits, former Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth's combat lasted just 35 mins as he went down 12-21, 17-21 to 24-year-old Ng Ka Long Angus in the second around. It was once his 3rd loss to the World no 15 from Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, Sameer Verma squandered a primary recreation merit to head down combating 21-16, 18-21, 14-21 to former world champion and world #1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark to bow out of the match.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy fought a gruelling fight ahead of shedding 21-16, 26-28, 16-21 to seventh seeded Japanese pair of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto.
Sikki and Pranaav Jerry Chopra, who's coming back from an injury, misplaced 21-23, 17-21 to Hong King's Chang Tak Ching and NG Wing Yung within the blended doubles.
The men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also misplaced 19-21, 21-16, 14-21 to the Chinese mixture of Ou Xuanyi and Ren Xiangyu.
Srikanth, who had disposed off France's Brice Leverdez 21-13 21-11 within the opening around, got here into the second-round match with a 2-Three head-to-head record towards Jonatan.
Srikanth lead Five-0 lead to begin with. Jonatan attempted to dominate the net and narrowed the led to Five-7 ahead of the Indian rode on his deception and a few angled returns to clutch 11-7 merit at the damage.
Srikanth's tricky play saved Jonatan on his ft as he moved to 19-15 with two smashes and went to recreation point when his rival hit lengthy. Two recreation points had been saved by the Indonesian ahead of the Indian unleashed a smash to clutch the bragging rights.
In the second recreation, Jonatan injected extra pace within the rallies and grabbed the first six points. Srikanth was once left to do the catch up act as Jonatan spread out a 11-6 lead at the breather and sooner or later took the match to the decider after changing nine recreation point alternatives.
In the 3rd recreation, Srikanth added extra energy to his strokes whilst Jonatan dedicated easy mistakes to path 2-7. Jonatan then took a scientific timeout due to a problem in his left foot.
On resumption, the Indian grabbed a 11-Four merit at the interval. Srikanth did not permit the sport to slip away after the interval even as Jonatan crumbled.
All England Open: Saina, Srikanth enter quarterfinals
![All England Open: Saina, Srikanth enter quarterfinals]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
March 08, 2019
Rating:
