India's top badminton star Saina Nehwal laboured past American Beiwen Zhang in testing three games to reach the women's singles quarter-finals of the All-England badminton championships, here.
The seventh seed Saina defeated the American qualifier 24-22, 18-21, 21-19 in an hour in the second round contest to keep the Indian flag flying in the prestigious championship on Thursday night. The Commonwealth Games gold medallist next faces fourth seed Chinese Wang Shixian, brushed aside the challenge of Ireland's Chloe Magee of 21-15, 21-12 in her second round match. Saina, who is the only Indian left in the championships, said that she was struggling to sleep properly because her room was cold.
‘Scared' Ratchanok eyes Xuerui showdown
Ratchanok Intanon, the youngest ever world singles champion, moved to within one win of a probable All-England Open showdown with li Xuerui, the Olympic champion, before admitting her patchy form is scary. The two women battled into the quarter-finals on Thursday, with the 19-year-old Thai coming from behind for the second day in succession and then producing a confessional about her mental state.
At one stage Ratchanok was a game and 11-11 down before getting past Han li, the world number 19 from China, by 18-21, by 21-14, 21-11. The day before she was within three points of defeat against the Singaporean Gu Juan. Honing her survival instincts in this way despite a patchy performance may be crucial, as the seven months since she overcame li in the world final have, she admits, been hard to handle.
"Everyone has been trying to beat me and I have been putting myself under pressure and been scared of the losses," said the Thai teenager. "So I try to concentrate on practising. I try not to think about the world championships because I am not the world number one."