16 April,2010 07:52 AM IST | | Sanjay Sharma
Former all England champions Gopichand and Sidek all praise for Saina Nehwal's alacrity
Twenty nine minutes was all Saina Nehwal needed to brush aside her Malaysian opponent, Julia Pie Xian Wong, on her way to the quarters of the Badminton Asia Championship in Delhi yesterday. Saina won 21-14/21-16 in a one sided match to set-up a quarter-final match with another Malaysian, the sixth seeded, Mew Cheo Wong. Saina Nehwal
Rashid impressed
The Indian ace earnedu00a0 praise from the Malaysian coach, Rashid Sidek, after the swashbuckling win. Rashid said, "I am really stunned to see the court movement of Saina Nehwal, and the confidence on her net strokes was something I really applaud."
The comments from Sidek are very encouraging as he is a former All England and Thomas Cup champion and is well respected.
Indian coach, P Gopichand, also a former All England champ, sung the same tune in describing Saina's performance.
He said, "I am very pleased with her movements today. She was a bit tense as she had lost to this player before. But today showed that she is improving in all departments of the game."
In the first game Saina led from the start leaping to 8-4 and then to 13-8. This is where Julia put up some fight. But after 17-12 Saina never looked back, showing great anticipation to shut out the game. She often came early on to the net to play those delectable net dribble shots which left Julia scrambling.
Saina got off to a flier in the second game and raced tou00a0 a 7-1 lead. But suddenly the top-seed seemed to have lost the plot and allowed Julia to equalise at 8-8 and then take a 12-10 lead. Soon it was 13-13 thanks to a contentious line-call. Saina played some tentative badminton at this stage.
"I was a bit affected by the draught in the hall where the shuttle was moving from left to right," Saina later said describing that period of play.
Saina picked herself up, and at 16-16 came a flurry of smashes along with early forays to the net to get those easy openings, which she put-off with lan.
She neveru00a0 looked back and romped home 21-16.
The big casualty of the day was men's top-seed, Taufik Hidayat.
The Indonesianu00a0 lost to unheralded Chinese Taipei player, Hsueh, 20-22/16-21. In men's doubles Sanave Thomas/Rupesh Kumar kept Indian hopes alive by defeating Chai and Lap of Thailand with ease 21-14/21-15.
