Top seed Saina Nehwal rallied to register another narrow victory over Indonesia's Dinar Dyah Ayustine to reach the quarter-finals of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Thursday.
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.
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. 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, 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.
Elsewhere, Saina Nehwal, who has recovered from a serious knee injury sustained during the Rio Olympics in August and is back on the international circuit, is still not at her physical best and needs more time to reach that high level, feels her coach Vimal Kumar.
"She is definitely not back to her best and has some way to go before she can aspire to win big tournaments again. She needs some more time, " said the former national men's champion.