Saina to face Marin in Malaysian Open semifinals

Kuala Lumpur, January 17: Indian badmnton ace Saina Nehwal scripted a hard-fought 21-18, 23-21 win over Japan's former world champion Nozomi Okuhara to enter the women's singles semifinals of the $350,000 Malaysian Open World Tour Super 500 Series tournament.

The 28-year-old from Hyderabad, who had won the title in 2017 and was runner-up in 2011, will face a tough test next when she faces three-time world champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the last-four encounter on Saturday (January 19).

Saina has defeated Marin five times and has lost to the Spaniard as many times in the last 10 meetings.

Seventh seeded Saina, who had a 8-4 head-to-head record against Okuhara, fought back from 9-15 and 14-18 down in the two games to extend her dominance over the second-seeded Japanese in the quarterfinals tie at the Axiata Arena which lasted 48 minutes.

Again a great match with @nozomi_o11 😊.. nice to b on the winning side ..21-18 , 23-21 #quarterfinals #malaysiamasterssuper500 ✌🏻 pic.twitter.com/JU0E4LhTIo

— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) January 18, 2019

The match started on an even keel as both the shuttlers fought hard, moving together till 9-9. Okuhara registered six straight points to create a huge gap, but Saina showed her mettle as she slowly erased the deficit and grabbed a 17-16 lead at one stage.

Okuhara made it 17-17 before Saina closed out the opening game by grabbing the remaining points.

The Indian was 4-2 up early on in the second game, but Okuhara jumped to a 8-5 lead before Saina wrested a 11-9 advantage at the break.

After the interval, Saina led till 14-12, but Okuhara reeled off six points to take a comfortable 18-14 lead. However, Saina again slowly started dominating the rallies and clawed her way back to 19-19.

Okuhara then squandered two game points before Saina converted the first match point that came her way to secure the semifinal berth.

(With inputs from PTI)