All England badminton: Saina Nehwal, Kidmabi Srikanth check in contrasting wins, Sai Praneeth loses
Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal registered contrasting wins to reach the quarterfinals of the All England badminton championship in Birmingham on Thursday at the same time as Sai Praneeth’s marketing campaign came to a cease.
Nehwal had to combat back from a disastrous beginning sport to defeat Denmark’s Line Kjaersfedlt eight-21, 21-sixteen, 21-13 and reach her eighth consecutive All England quarterfinals. The match lasted 51 minutes.
Srikanth, meanwhile, started nicely, misplaced his way inside the second recreation but managed to slash his errors within the decider to percent off Asian Games gold medallist Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 21-17, eleven-21, 21-12 in 58 mins.
Nehwal bounces back in style
With all different Indians knocked out of the opposition after they took to court, all eyes were on the 2 former world quantity ones, and they delivered while it mattered.
Nehwal becomes the first in motion and it looked just like the 28-year-antique can also be heading domestically when she misplaced the outlet sport in only 12 mins, spraying her smashes extensive and truly suffering to discover her rhythm.
2015 All England finalist then trailed Sept. 11 within the 2d recreation as Kjaersfedlt caught the Indian off defend along with her go court docket drops on both sides of the courtroom. But Dane’s inexperience showed when she tried to play sharper strokes because the healthy improved, seeking to win points quicker, and ended up making errors — Nehwal made her pay for them.
The 28-12 months-antique Indian hardly ever lets in to head a possible move waste, and once she determined a way to take the higher hand in the second recreation, she romped domestic to victory.
She will now face the world No 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the final 8. The protecting champion from Chinese Taipei made brief paintings of USA’s Beiwen Zhang. From trailing 1-8 inside the first sport, she received 21-15, 21-14 in just 31 mins in opposition to the 2018 Indian Open champion.
A topsy-turvy win for Srikanth
Later within the day, Srikanth was a good deal greater assertive towards Christie but suffered a lapse in attention within the 2nd sport.
The 26-year-antique used his array of slices and flick smashes to bulldoze Christie within the establishing recreation. But the alternate of ends additionally introduced exchange in fortunes for the Indonesian as Srikanth struggled to govern his lifts from the tight side and misplaced as an alternative without difficulty.
He, however, took control of the proceedings immediately in the 1/3 game and unfolded an eleven-four lead and the very last exchange of ends did not count number this time around as the installation a quarterfinal encounter towards international No 1 Kenta Momota.
Earlier, B Sai Praneeth over again flattered to mislead as he went down 21-12, 21-17 in opposition to Ng Ka Long Angus within the men’s singles 2nd spherical.
The 2017 Singapore Superseries champion seemed sturdy within the beginning recreation as he held a 10-eight lead before his opponent received 13 of the following 15 factors to take the first sport. Sai Praneeth changed into then usually gambling catch up inside the 2nd and lost in 35 minutes. The Indian did not make the most of a draw that spread out for him after the upsets on day one.
