After saving six match points, however, she went on to clinch a 14-21, 22-20, 21-12 victory to secure Indonesia’s first women’s singles medal in more than a decade. But the Indian did beat her the last time they met at the All England Championships this year where she made it to the final and since then she has grown in confidence.
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It was Nehwal who led 11-8 at the interval when Yihan sent her two forehands long.
While two-time bronze medalist PV Sindhu and the doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa bowed out of the championship, Saina was not to be denied a place in the last-four stage and will take on home favourite Lindaweni Fanetri, who ousted fourth seed Tai Tzu Ying, on Saturday.
Despite being the second seed, Saina was not looking beyond reaching the semifinal when she left India and knew that former world champion and long-time nemesis Yihan would have to be conquered along the way.
“I always had hard draws and would run into a Chinese in the quarter-final – there was a mental block”. I wanted to come out of it. Right now, I am still thinking of the match.
In a match of fluctuating fortunes, the 25-year-old Saina held the whip in the first game.
Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton’s talismanic star who has for years waged a valiant battle against the domination of Chinese women shuttlers with admirable success, threw her racquet high in the air and jumped in delight as she celebrated the end of a long-standing jinx inside a packed hall in Jakarta on Friday evening.
Chen claimed the first game but the seventh-seeded Axelsen put up a dogged defence in the second, dragging the contest beyond an hour before succumbing 21-18, 30-29. A forehand smash by Nehwal, two forehand unforced errors by Yihan helped Nehwal level scores at 8-8.
Vimal was obviously elated and admitted that there was a lot of pressure on Saina going into the quarters. “It was very special”, said Saina. “In the third game, Yihan did push the pace but this time Saina was ready for her and even went on the offensive”, the former national coach told Mirror from Jakarta.
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A World Championship medal for Saina Nehwal would have been incomplete without beating a Chinese on the way. This strategy worked till the middle of the second game.
