Jakarta: It was curtains down for India at the Indonesia Open Superseries Premier as defending champion Saina Nehwal lost her semi-final battle to Juliane Schenk of Germany in an engrossing tussle, 12-21 21-13 21-14 here on Saturday. Schenk will now take on top seed Li Xuerui of China in the final.
Nehwal was the overwhelming favourite, having won seven of their last eight matches. However, the German started off strongly, imposing her aggressive game to go up 12-6. The match then turned in the most unusual way. Nehwal slowly inched back, and Schenk lost composure and focus, throwing away 15 straight points to allow Nehwal to take the game 12-21.
However, Schenk came back strong thereafter and was able to regain the upper hand with some astute play. Her attacking game, studded with some jump smashes, sharp interceptions and delicate net shots, helped her dominate Nehwal, who was strangely passive throughout the 52-minute encounter. Nehwal struggled to stay in the rallies and Schenk finally won the match 21-13 with another tight net shot.
In the decider, Juliane matched the Indian and waited for her to commit mistakes and soon took a 6-4 and was ahead at 11-5 till the breather. Thereafter, Juliane found the net and hit long to give Saina a couple of points but the Indian once again failed to get the length of her stokes right as Juliane reached 14-7. Though Saina narrowed the gap to 14-16, a cross court smash, a brilliant net play and another down the line smash helped Juliane to make it 19-14. Finally Juliane won 21-14.