Indian ace shuttler Saina Nehwal on Thursday booked her spot in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Korea Open after defeating Kim Ga Eun of South Korea in the pre-quarters of the women’s singles event.
Displaying a dominating performance in the match, the 28-year-old registered a convincing win in both the games as she thrashed her South Korean opponent 21-18, 21-18 in a clash that lasted 36 minutes.
Taking it to Twitter, Nehwal expressed her joy and wrote, “Good 2 nd round victory against Kim Ga Eun of korea 21-18 …21-18 #koreaopensuper500 2018 👍.”
Good 2 nd round victory against Kim Ga Eun of korea 21-18 …21-18 #koreaopensuper500 2018 👍 pic.twitter.com/MBngWZlbpw
— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) September 27, 2018
Making a strong start to the first game, former world number one, Nehwal opened with a dominating 6-1 lead. As the scoreline reached 10-2 in India’s favour, the South Korean earned four consecutive points to lessen the point gap to 10-6. Ga Eun, however, continued with her attacking shots and made a spectacular comeback by levelling the game 16-16. Following the setback, Indian shuttler rose to the occasion and collected three back to back points to again shift the momentum to her side by clinching the game 21-18.
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In the second game, it was the South Korean shuttler who ran away with an initial lead of five points. Putting up a hard fight on the court, Nehwal, however, clinched back to back points to level the scores at 13-13 and did not look back after that and went on to take the game 21-18.
Currently, Nehwal is the only Indian left in the tournament after Sameer Verma and Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka crashed out on Wednesday.