A straight game victory for Saina Nehwal over local favourite Fitriani of Indonesia helped her sail into the quarter-finals of the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta on Saturday. The star Indian shuttler had it easy like the first round as she outplayed Fitriani 21-6, 21-14 in a second-round match in just over half an hour.
Olympic and World Championship silver medallist PV Sindhu outclassed another local player in the form of Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 21-12, 21-15 in a match that lasted just 35 minutes to advance to the quarter-finals.
However, it was curtains for Commonwealth Games silver medallists Satwicksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in the men’s doubles category as they went down 17-21, 21-19, 17-21, despite putting up a brave fight against Choi Solgyu and Min Hyuk Kang of Korea.
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Saina would next be up against the winner of Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun and Thailand’s fourth-seeded Ratchanok Itanon, while Sindhu would face either Sri Lanka’s Kavidi Sirimannage or Nitchaon Jindapol.
In the Sindhu vs Gregoria clash, it was only a matter of time that the Indian raced to an 8-1 lead before a fightback from her opponent ensured that the lead was narrowed down to 10-7. But Sindhu gained the upper hand before the interval with a smash, entering the break leading 11-8.
There were some moments of brilliance for the 19-year old Gregoria who at times seemed to trouble Sindhu with her reverse slices and backhand flicks. But the experience of Sindhu helped her stay ahead of her opponent. In the second game, Sindhu took a 6-2 lead despite a strong show of defence from Gregoria. The crowd pumped the 19-year old up and soon she managed to close down the gap to 12-15 before Sindhu’s accuracy helped her win the match.
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For Saina, all the resistance she faced from Fitriani was in the second game where she took an 8-5 lead. But Saina never really allowed her to run away with the game. Fitriani’s first smash over the lines gave Saina her first match point with the score in favour of the Indian at 19-14.
“It’s an easy win but she is not an easy opponent to play with. She did well against (Nozomi) Okuhora in the team championship. There were pretty long rallies and the crowd was also supporting her. The conditions were also tough today, there was more drift,” Saina, as quoted by Business Standard, said after the match. Fitriani had the backing of the crowd and Saina acknowledged the fact that it does become difficult to play Indonesians in their own country.
She said “I have played a lot of finals here so I am used to it but every match is new, so it is still difficult. My movement was good today.”