Leading the Indian contingent at the Macau Open Grand Prix here on Thursday, Saina Nehwal rallied to register another narrow victory over Indonesia’s Dinar Dyah Ayustine to reach the quarterfinals of the badminton tournament.
Former World No. 1 Saina bounced back from a game down to see off Ayustine 17-21, 21-18, 21-12 in a match which lasted over an hour in the women’s singles competition here. London Olympics bronze medallist, Saina will next take on China’s Zhang Yiman.
However, it was curtains for P. Kashyap and men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy.
Kashyap, who is on a comeback trail, put up a gallant fight before losing 13-21, 20-22 to Lin Yu Hsien of Chinese Taipei in a 45-minute duel.
Third seeds Manu and Sumeeth also fought hard before going down 20-22, 19-21 to Singapore’s Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Hendra Wijaya.
In the women’s singles match, Saina blew a 11-7 lead in the opening game to see Ayustine move ahead and pocket the game. However, a determined Saina dished out a more dominating performance in the second game as she zoomed to a 11-3 lead at the break.
Ayustine slowly and steadily bridged the gap after interval and drew parity at 18-18 but the Indian ensured there was no hiccup as she bounced back into the contest.
In the decider, it was the Indonesian shuttler who held a slender 4-2 lead early on but Saina turned the tables at 5-5 and moved ahead, opening up a 11-8 lead at the interval.
Saina then reeled off four points to extend the lead and eventually sealed the match with another four-point burst.
Meanwhile, B. Sai Praneeth entered the quarterfinals of the men’s singles after getting the better of Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-15, 21-17.
Praneeth took just 43 minutes to down fifth seed shuttler from Hong Kong.The Indian will next take on Zhao Jun Peng of China.
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