New Delhi: India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the elimination round of the BWF Super Series Finals with a straight-game victory over Sayaka Sato of Japan in the women’s singles in Liuzhou, China on Thursday.
World number four Saina, who had defeated Korean Youn Joo Bae yesterday, beat Sayaka 21-16 21-13 in a 36-minute match to keep her record 2-0 so far.
The 21-year-old was beaten by the Japanese early this year at the Korean Open. Saina will now face World number three Xin Wang, who has always enjoyed an upper hand against the Indian, defeating her four times. Saina had lost to Xin in the finals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold to finish runner-up. However, she had avenged her loss at the quarterfinals of the Sudirman Cup when she beat Xin — then World number two.Lagging 3-7 in the first round, Saina turned the tables on Xin by catching up at 12-12, before breaking through at 16-all with five straight points.
In the second game, Sainadidn’t give the Chinese any chance to come back after being locked at 4-4. The Indian reeled off eight points on the trot to move to 12-4 and held her ground to emerge victorious. (PTI)
