Saina Nehwal enters finals of Malaysia Masters
On a comeback trial, Saina Nehwal is taking giant strides in the ongoing 2017 Malaysia Masters. The 26 year old put up a dominating performance to storm into the finals of the tournament. Being played at Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia, the top seed needed just 32 minutes to dispose off Yip Pui Yin. She won 21-13, 21-10 in a one-sided match.
The Indian badminton queen will meet rising Thai shuttler Pornpawee Chochuwong in the title encounter. The teenager, who won silver at the World Junior Championships last year has been making giant inroutes ever since. She upset the second seed Cheung Ngan Yi 21-19, 20-22, 21-18 in a thrilling match.
4 consecutive straight-game win for Saina
Even though Saina had a 6-2 advantage in previous head-to-heads, it was the Hong Kong player who took the early lead. Saina allowed her to take a 8-5 lead and an 11-9 advantage at half-time. However, on resumption, Saina turned over a new leaf and regained the lead.
Thereafter, after the match in the deadlock at 13-12, Saina raced ahead with eight points out of the next nine to win the set 21-13. Henceforth, she never let her opponent settle and raced ahead even in the next set. Yip Pui Yin completely lost her touch in the second set and never recovered.
It was after an initial drubbing of 0-6 when Yip finally got on the board. A few errors crept into Nehwal’s game and Yip reached 5-8. However, Saina would keep on accelerating her score and soared to 11-5. She would then go on to lead 16-9 before pocketing the set and match.
Two successive Indian winners?
With this straight game victory, the Indian maintained her record of not conceding a game in the entire tournament. Moreover, on Sunday, Saina will look to become the second Indian to win the Malaysian Masters in a trot. PV Sindhu had triumphed in this tournament last year. The Sportsrush wishes Saina Nehwal all the best!
