Jakarta: Indian badminton queen Saina Nehwal has made it to the quarterfinals of Indonesia Super Series Premier as she recorded an easy win over her Japanese opponent, Sayaka Takahashi, in straight games on Thursday.
It took her just 39 minutes to defeat the 24th ranked Takahashi by 21-13 and 21-19 in the second round match of women’s singles. World number two Saina Nehwal will test her mettle against Spaniard Carolina Marin in the quarterfinal.
Saina banked on her smashes and superior net play to steer clear of her Japanese rival. The Hyderabadi got tough competition from her opponent initially as they were tied at 6-6 but she managed to step up the gas and got lead of six points soon.
Japanese counterpart did show some resilience by notching few straight points to reduce the gap to 13-14 but that was the end of it as Saina wrapped up the opening game by scoring the next seven points.
Takahashi did well to take an edge over Saina in the second game after scoring three points to take a thin lead of 15-12, but that too didn’t last long as second seed got her act together and made a strong comeback to make it 18-18. The final punch came from the badminton sensation came which won her the game and the match by 21-19.
While the women's double pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradnya Gadre lost 13-21 19-21 to local combo Anneke Feinya Agustin and Della Destiara Haris in little over half an hour.
But Ashwini Ponnappa along with her mixed doubles partner Tarun Kona were handed a 14-21 21-17 13-21 defeat by Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba of Poland in 42 minutes.