India’s ace Women badminton player Saina Nehwal outplayed her Indonesian opponent Fitriani 21-17, 21-15 in straight games to book a quarter final berth at the Indonesia Masters Super 500 BWF tournament in Jakarta.
The World No.9 who enjoyed a healthy 4-0 win loss record against the young Indonesian maintained her run to get one better.
The contest, though, started on an even keel with both players matching each other point for a point with the score reaching 9-9. After which the Indian took leverage and raced to 16-10 in no time. The Indian was looking ominous but the gutsy Indonesian did get back but was eventually late in her surge as the Olympic Bronze medalist Saina wrapped up the game at 21-17.
The second game too followed the suit with both the women taking each other head on and not yielding an inch after the opening exchanges. The deadlock was broken by Saina when she earned a 4 point streak to make it 10-7 just before the mid game break. After the break the Indian managed to sustain the gap between the two till the end and eventually won the game easily at 21-15.
The Indian will now meet Thailand’s Pompawee ChochuWong in the quarter finals. The Indian entered the tournament after a decent show in the season opener at the Malaysia Masters Super 300 where she made it to the Semifinals.
Earlier in the day PV Sindhu as well as Kidambi Srikanth made it to the quarters of the tournament.