Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth had to toil hard to seal their places in the quarterfinals of the All England Championships on Thursday.
While Saina rallied her way to a 8-21, 21-16, 21-13 win over Denmark's Line Kjarsfeldt 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 in the last three meetings.
Eighth-seeded Saina is expected to take on two-time champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, an opponent who got the better of her in last 12 outings, while the 26-year-old Srikanth will face top-ranked Kento Momota of Japan, who has beaten the Indian five times last season.
AS IT HAPPENED | All England Badminton: Saina, Srikanth storm into quarterfinals
Though Saina had won both her previous meetings against Kjaersfeldt in international badminton, the 2015 finalist was blown away by her opponent in the opening game. The experienced campaigner, however, kept her cool and won four of five points after conceding a 10-11 deficit into the mid-game interval.
She took the match to the decider and eventually come up trumps against her Danish rival, needing just two game points to claim the second game and seal the win.
Quick start from Srikanth
Srikanth, who had disposed of France's Brice Leverdez 21-13, 21-11 in the opening round, booked his maiden All England quarterfinal berth with a hard fought win against Jonatan Christie.
Srikanth's positive approach earned him a 5-0 lead in the first game. Jonatan tried to dominate the net and narrowed the led to 5-7 before the Indian, who was knocked out in the second round in two of the last three editions of the tournament, rode on his deception and a couple of angled returns to have a 11-7 advantage at the first break.
READ | China's Lin Dan dumped out of All England Open
The Indonesian again brought the equation down to 10-12 before Srikanth reeled off three straight points. Srikanth's tricky play kept Jonatan on his feet as he moved to 19-15 with two smashes and went to game point when his rival hit long.
Two game points were saved by the Indonesian before a midcourt return was punished by Srikanth to grab the first game.
In the second game, Jonatan injected more pace in the rallies and grabbed the first six points before committing a service error. Srikanth was left to do the catch-up act as Jonatan opened up a 11-6 lead.
The Indian couldn't keep up with the pace of his rival as the second game slipped out of his hand with Jonatan taking the match to the decider after converting nine-game point opportunities.
ALSO READ | All England: Sindhu crashes out in first round
In the third game, Srikanth added more power to his strokes while Jonatan committed simple errors to trail 2-7. Jonatan then took a medical timeout to address a problem in his left foot.
The three-minute delay didn't break the momentum of the Indian as he grabbed an 11-4 advantage at the interval, after which Srikanth didn't allow the game to slip away.
In other matches, former Singapore Open champion B. Sai Praneeth's fight lasted just 35 minutes as he went down 12-21, 17-21 to 24-year-old Angus Ng Ka Long in the second round. It was his third loss to World No. 15 from Hong Kong.
Comments
SHARE