Swiss Open: Saina, Prannoy storm into semis; Sindhu crashes out
Two-time champion Saina Nehwal and H S Prannoy progressed to the semi-final of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament on Friday after tough encounters in the quarters. However, P V Sindhu crashed out of the tournament in the quarters after losing to He Bingjiao in straight games.
After registering a birthday win over Kristina Gavnholt in the pre-quarter-final on Thursday, 2012 Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal continued her good run in the tournament beating seventh seed Sayaka Sato in the quarter-final. Heading into the match, the Hyderabad lass had a 4-1 head-to-head record against the Japanese, but the World No.13 gave the top-seed a run for the money with a spirited performance.
In the first game, it was all one-way traffic. Sayaka Sato won the first point of the game and continued her dominance from there on by keeping the two-time champion at bay to clinch the game 21-13. However, the second game turned out to be a much closer affair with the Indian coming back strongly by matching the Japanese shuttler point for point. After exchanging leads till the break, Saina finally took the game by the scruff of the neck and won five points in a row to take a 17-10 lead. The seven-point lead was enough to get her the game as the World championship silver medallist levelled things up in the match by winning the second game 21-15.
In the third and final game, Saina continued the momentum she obtained in the second game and was leading 8-6 before the Japanese shuttler won four points in a row. Following the footsteps of her rival, the Indian won three successive points to go into the break with an 11-10 lead. After the break, it was all one-way traffic with Saina winning six points in a row to leave her opponent on the sidelines. Sayaka Sato was nowhere in the game and surrendered the game and the match to the 26-year old Indian 14-21.
Top-seed Saina will have another tough encounter on her hands in the semi-final when she faces third-seed Wang Yihan, who holds a 9-4 head-to-head record against the Indian.
In the men’s singles, H S Prannoy continued his impressive run in the tournament after defeating sixteenth-seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-18, 22-24, 21-9 to enter the semi-final. Prannoy, who stunned sixth-seed Rajiv Ouseph in the pre-quarter-final yesterday, started the match poorly by trailing the Thai shuttler 2-7 in the first game. The Indian bounced back by claiming six points in a row and took the momentum away from Tanongsak to lead the game from there on before taking it 21-18. In the second game, the Kerala lad had the golden opportunity to finish the game at 21-20 after the Thai shuttler made a spirited comeback. Prannoy wasted the opportunity, and Tanongsak took the lead at 22-21. Although Prannoy levelled it with a point, the sixteenth-seed took the second game 24-22 to make it 1-1 in the match.
The crucial third game turned out to be an opposite of the entertaining second game with Prannoy dominating Tanongsak from the start to the finish. With the Thai looking lost, Prannoy romped home with a 21-9 win in the third game to confirm his spot in the last four. The 13th-seeded Indian will next face unseeded Wang Tzu-Wei from Chinese Taipei in the semi-final on Saturday.
However, P V Sindhu’s inconsistent start to the season continued as she crashed out of the tournament after losing the quarter-final match to He Bingjiao of China 13-21, 15-21.
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