India ace Saina Nehwal on Friday etched her name in the history book by assuring herself of at least a bronze medal after reaching the semifinals of the World Badminton Championship.
The World No. 2 Indian showed tremendous athleticism and precision to outwit 2011 edition gold medallist and former World No. 1 Wang Yihan 21-15, 19-21, 21-19.
The Olympic bronze medallist will next take on Indonesia’s lindaweni Fanetri, against whom Saina has a 2-1 record.
With this win, Saina broke her jinx of reaching the semifinals in her last five outings and became the second Indian female singles shuttler to assure of a medal after P V Sindhu, who had won the bronze in 2013 and 2014.
In the opening game, Wang had opened up a 7-4 lead early on but Saina produced some brilliant strokes to draw level at 8-8. A deception at the front court took the Indian to 10-8 before Wang’s erratic service helped Saina to go into the break with a 11-10 advantage.
Post interval, a long rally ended with Saina reaching 13-11 after Wang shot was buried at the nets. A couple of long shot by Wang saw Saina reach 15-11. The Indian rushed on to a net shot to concede a point but she bounced back with a body smash.
A net dribble took Saina to 19-15 and with Wang finding the net again meant the Indian had five game point advantage.
Saina didn’t waste any time and sealed it with another razor sharp cross court smash, which found Wang napping.
Saina slowly found her bearing as she rode on her power smash, immaculate touch and athleticism to claw back after another long rally.
Earlier, Sindhu, seeded 11th, was second best in the battle of attrition, going down 17-21, 21-19, 16-21.
Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also lost to Naoko Fukuman and Kurumi Yonao 23-25, 14-21.
‘played with lots of patience and it showed’
Assured of atleast a bronze at the World Badminton Championship, ace shuttler Saina described her quarterfinal win as “special” and said patience was the key to her success, here.
“I am very lucky. It was like a final. It was very special,” said Saina after ekeing out a thrilling 21-15, 19-21, 21-19 win over 2011 edition gold medallist and former World No. 1 Wang Yihan in an hour and 12 minutes gruelling battle.
“At the highest level, the difference is very little. Everyone is good in the top 10. The margin of error is very little as you can see it was 21-19. luck played a big role and today for me, it was lot of patience and little bit of luck here and there.” she said.
“It is a first in many ways. So I will want to thank my coaches, my families, parents and my hard work. It is a god gift for me,” she added.