Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth reached the quarter-finals of the 2018 badminton world championships after straight-game wins on Thursday, but it was curtains for world No 5 Kidambi Srikanth, who was upset by the 39th-ranked Daren Liew of Malaysia in the third round.
Nehwal booked a spot in the quarters of the world championships for the record eighth time after beating former champion Ratchanok Intanon 21-16, 21-19. No other woman has reached the last eight of the world championships as many times as the 28-year-old Indian.
Later in the day, the last edition’s silver medallist Sindhu, seeded third, eased past ninth seed Sung Ji Hyun of Korea 21-10, 21-18. Sindhu will next play defending champion Nozomi Okuhara in a repeat of the 2017 final.
B Sai Praneeth also eased into the men’s singles quarter-finals with a comfortable 21-13, 21-11 win over Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus. He will next take on Japan’s Kento Momota, who is one of the favourites for the title.
Nehwal had a 9-5 head-to-head lead over Intanon, the former world No 1, going into the match and she was able to extend it with ease. Intanon was nowhere near her best and gave away easy points to the 2015 silver medallist. The deceptive game that has become Intanon’s trademark was missing, while Nehwal combined her good retrieving abilities with aggressive play mixed in between.
Intanon had an 8-5 lead in the first game, before she allowed Nehwal to win the next six points, after which the Indian never looked back. In the second game, Nehwal was in the lead throughout and, at 18-13, it looked like she would coast to a win. However, this is when the former world champion decided that she has got nothing to lose and went for everything tossed at her.
“She started playing more fearlessly after 18-13 in the second game,” said Nehwal, after the match. “She was everywhere, she was playing all those difficult shots which I see usually Ratchanok playing.” A pumped up Intanon managed to level the score at 19-19, threatening to take the match into a decider.
However, Nehwal went for a deceptive return of serve on the next point, which forced Intanon to hit wide. Then, the Indian converted her match-point opportunity with a smash, which the Thai could only hit into the net. Nehwal admitted later that those last two points were all down to her mentor and India’s chief national coach P Gopichand.
“After 19-19, Gopi Sir played a big role with those two points, where strategy really mattered,” she said. “The way he told me what to do, I just followed that.”
After losing tight matches to world No 1 Tai Tzu Ying and world No 2 Akane Yamaguchi earlier this year, Nehwal was happy she was able to pull through a match against a tough opponent, even one who seemed a bit off colour.
“In the previous tournaments, I was getting nervous after 18-18 and giving up matches. But today, I felt I was there, I was picking up shots and I could do it. I’m just happy my form is coming back in a crucial tournament,” she said.
Next up for Nehwal is Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the quarter-finals, which will be a repeat of the 2015 final that the Spaniard had won. However, Nehwal said she is under no pressure considering her results over the last two tournaments, where she failed to get past the second round.
“I’m playing Marin after a long time, after the Denmark Open last year,” Nehwal said. “She is a quick and aggressive player, so it is going to be a challenging match for me. I just want to give my best.”
Errors cost Srikanth
However, there was a huge upset in the men’s singles as world No 5 Kidambi Srikanth was beaten by the 39th-ranked Daren Liew of Malaysia 18-21, 18-21. “He played really well,” said Srikanth after the match. “I had my chances in the first and second game, but I couldn’t keep the shuttle in. There were too many smashes that went out, too many mistakes and that definitely won’t win you a game.”
Asked if it was the pressure of the world championships that got to him, Srikanth said, “I don’t know. I can’t really complain about it. I have played enough world championships.”
Earlier in the day, Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy beat the Malaysian world No 7 pair of Soon Huat Goh and Shevon Jemie Lai to book a spot in the quarters.
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