Jwala-Ashwini storm into semis
London: India’s Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa stormed into the semi-final of the World Badminton championships, upsetting Indonesian Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati 17-21, 21-10, 21-17 in women’s doubles here Friday.
India’s best hope Saina Nehwal, however, bowed out of the women’s singles, losing to Xin Wang of China 15-21, 10-21 in the quarterfinal.
Saina, seeded sixth, went down to the third seed in 30 minutes. In the previous two editons also Saina made a quarter-final exit.
With Saina’s loss, India’s challenge in the singles competition came to an end.
Unseeded Jwala and Ashwini, the gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games, kept Indian interest alive.
Continuing their giant-killing act, Jwala and Ashwini beat the Indonesian pair in 47 minutes. They lost the first game, but fought their way back to clinch the match.
Earlier, Saina’s quarterfinal jinx in the World Badminton Championship continued as the ace Indian shuttler suffered a straight-game defeat.
World number six Saina, who reached the quarterfinals in the last two editions too, had to be contend with yet another last-eight finish as she lost 15-21 10-21 in a one-sided 30-minute match here.
The 21-year-old Indian was not in her elements as she struggled with her strokes and also committed too many unforced errors to hand over the match to the former world number one Chinese at the Wembley arena here.
Playing with the breeze in the first game, Saina kept her shuttle up during her serves and took a 4-2 lead, but Xin caught the Indian at the cross court to draw parity before breaking off at 9-9.
Saina faltered with her baseline strokes and also failed to negotiate the sharp shots of the Chinese as Xin registered five straight points to move to 14-9, before holding her fort to grab the first game.
The second game started off with long rallies but Xin soon started attacking as Saina panicked and ended up giving a 4-10 lead to the Chinese.Even though coach Pullela Gopichand tried to motivate Saina, the gulf could not be bridged as Xin controlled the game while anticipating the shots from the Indian. (Agencies)
