Swiss Open Badminton Championships

Saina stuns Wang to retain Swiss Open.

When the whole nation was glued to the TV watching India-Pakistan cricket match, someone was fighting out tooth and nail to beat a higher ranked Chinese opponent, in something they are best at. Saina Nehwal stunned World No.2 Wang Shixian of China in straight sets 21-19, 21-16. The game was not as easy as it looks on paper. In the first game Saina took an early lead at 10-2 and when everyone thought it would be an easy outing for the Indian, Wang came back strongly to level the game at 17 all before Saina took the game 21-19. In the second game, Wang took a lead at 11-7 during interval, but Saina fought it out with strong defence and very good net points to level at 15 all before taking the game at 21-16. With this win, Saina is likely to get back her No.4 spot from All England Champion, Li Xuerui. Saina turned 22 yesterday.

It was an all Chinese affair in the Women’s doubles with Huan Xia and Tang Jinhua defeating Bao Yixin and Zhong Qianxin 21-17, 21-10. It looked like an one sided affair with the former taking leads in both the sets.

Hyun Il Lee’s fine run came to an end when he was defeated by World No.5, Chen Jin of China in a keen contest. The match was decided in three sets. Lee took the first set at 21-14 and Jin came back strongly to take the second set at 21-9. Jin took 9 straight points with his strong smashes and accurate drops. The third set saw the battle going till the end and saw the higher ranked Chinese seal the set and match at 21-17. Chen Jin had earlier defeated Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia in the semi final to take a sweet revenge for his last week loss at All England. Today’s match lasted 67 minutes.

After crowning the much coveted All England Open last week, Indonesian pair of Tantowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir are on a roll. They proved too strong for Thailand’s Sudket Prapakamol-Saralee Thoungthongkam, winning 21-16, 21-14 in the last match of the day. The winners would be moving to the third spot when the rankings get declared later this month.

Japan’s Naoki Kawamae-Shoji Sato had it easy over Taipei’s Fang Chieh Min-Lee Sheng Mu 21-13, 21-14 in a rather easy match. The match lasted only 33 minutes