Saina Nehwal in semis; Ashwini-Pradnya lose

World No.2 Saina Nehwal powered through to the semifinals of the Maybank Malaysia Open on Friday, beating Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-11, 14-21, 2-0 retd. However, Saina’s compatriots Ashwini Ponnappa and Pradnya Gadre fell in the women’s doubles quarterfinals.

Okuhara retired early in the third game after hurting her right knee. The momentum had shifted her way in the second after Saina dominated the early exchanges. The Indian was never threatened at any point in the first game by the World Junior Champion, who didn’t seem to possess any big weapons with which to worry the top seed. But for a couple of long rallies in the first game, most of the other rallies were short exchanges that ended in Nehwal’s favour. The game was over in 15 minutes after Okuhara sent a clear long.

There was a break of about 5 minutes after the first game as the lights above the court went off, and Saina seemed to struggle to get back into rhythm. The errors kept flowing from her racket as Okuhara went up 14-2, and although the Indian recovered to get six points in a row for 10-16, the Japanese girl pressed her advantage to take the second game 21-14.

However, Okuhara hurt herself late in the second game, and after just a couple of points in the third, she told the umpire she was unable to continue. Saina will play Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei), who beat third seed Tine Baun (Denmark).

Ashwini and Pradnya had authored a superlative upset of favourites Ma Jin/Tang Jinhua (China) in the second round, but they could not carry forward their winning form into the quarterfinals. They were stopped by Vita Marissa/Aprilsasi Variella (Indonesia) 18-21 21-13 21-13.