Indonesian Open: Saina prevails over fighting Fanetri to sneak into second round

File Photo: India’s Saina Nehwal.

India’s Saina Nehwal was pushed hard by Indonesian world number 14 Fanetri Lindaweni before prevailing 21-17, 25-27, 21-13 to march into the women’s singles second round of the Djarum Indonesian Open being played in Jakarta.

It was a battle of attrition in the opening game as both players refused to give an inch. Saina was down 9-10 at one stage but showed the required resilience to collect four points on the trot to gain a 13-10 lead.

The Indian badminton icon was clinical at the net and looked solid with her smashes. Fanetri did not allow the Indian to run away with the opening game as she kept narrowing the gap, making the scoreline 13-15.

Saina did not leave anything to chance guarding against a possible fight back by the Indonesian in the closing stages of the first game and wrapped it up on a confident note, winning it 21-17.

The Indian began the second game on a bullish note, first sewing up a 2-0 lead before proceeding to chalk up a 5-3 lead before Fanetri gained the upper hand taking a 10-7 lead to keep herself in the contest.

Saina fought back to make it 10-11 and looked to nullify the Indonesian’s hopes of taking the contest into a decider.

The match was tantalizingly poised with the scores level at 15-15. Saina bagged two crucial points to march ahead at 17-15.

Fanetri tried hard to stay in the contest, but Saina held her nerves to lead 20-18. The Indonesian saved two match points to force the decider into deuce and eventually won it 27-25 in a gruelling affair.

Saina dominated the early stages of the decider taking a handy 5-0 lead.

She maintained a decent lead midway through the decider, first taking an 8-4 lead before enjoying a six point cushion at 11-5.

Saina further consolidated her position to lead the Indonesian 16-11. The Indian landed the final punches severely to close the decider at 21-13.

She is the lone Indian representative in the women’s singles category.

PV Sindhu decided to give the tournament a miss, while Arundhati Pantawane crashed out in the first round of the qualifiers on Monday.

The country’s top-ranked men’s singles player Parupalli Kashyap will take on Japan’s world number 19 Sho Sasaki of Japan.

Sourabh Varma – ranked 37th in the world – will locks horns with Denmark’s world number 15 Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the opening round.

25th ranked RMV Gurusaidutt will take on former world number one Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, while 28th ranked Ajay Jayaram will go up against Riyanto Subagja of Indonesia.

B Sai Praneeth, who came through the qualifying round, takes on Andre Kurniawan Tedjono of Indonesia in the opening round.