Sports
Saina enters All England final
Birmingham, March 7
Saina Nehwal became the
first Indian in 14 years to reach the final of the All England Open
Badminton Championships by virtue of a straight games win over China's
Sun Yu here on Saturday.
The third seed became the first Indian
woman to enter the summit clash of the prestigious $500,000 tournament
by defeating the tall Chinese 21-13, 21-13 in 50 minutes at the
Barclaycard Arena, taking a 2-1 lead in career meetings.
Only two Indians -- Pullela Gopichand (2001) and Prakash Padukone (1980) -- have won the tournament till date.
World
No.3 Saina started poorly as her Chinese opponent took a 7-2 lead in
the opening game. However, the Indian clawed back to level the game at
11-all and used her experience to easily advance to a 16-13 lead.
From there, the Olympic bronze medallist won the next five points to clinch the game and take the lead in the match.
Sun
came back strongly in the second game as the duo went neck-and-neck
till 12-all. However, while trying to hit a smash, the Chinese World
No.18 appeared to have injured her ankle.
She took a small break
but had to rejoin soon and never looked the same. The 24-year-old Saina,
taking advantage, upped the ante to win the next seven points. With
Sun's smash going wide, Saina won on her first matchpoint to enter her
maiden All England final.
In the summit clash on Sunday, the
Hyderabadi will take on the winner of the match between Spain's Carolina
Marin and Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying.