Former world No 1 Saina Nehwal produced a dominant display against junior world champion Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, winning the semi-final 21-11, 21-12 in just 30 minutes at the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament in Odense on Saturday.
Unseeded at the tournament, Nehwal will now face a familiar foe in world No 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the final on Sunday.
This is the Indian’s second final in Denmark, six years after she won the title in 2012.
Having reached the semifinal after impressive wins against Japanese shuttlers Akane Yamaguchi and Nozomi Okuhara, Nehwal produced a clinical performance in the semifinal. It was the first meeting on the tour between Nehwal and Gregoria Tunjung.
Nehwal made a fast start against a nervous-looking youngster, dictating the tempo early on. She opened up a 9-3 with Tunjung struggling to find any rhythm. Before the Indonesian could blink, Nehwal opened up a 10-point lead before wrapping the opener up 21-11.
Nehwal kept the rallies shot, playing plenty of fast pushes and targetting Tunjung’s backhand. The Indonesian had struggled earlier in the tournament with a back injury and it seemed Nehwal’s strategy was to exploit any potential weakness there.
Nehwal started the second game by moving Tunjung all over the court and took a 4-1 lead in the second game. But it was better from the Indonesian as well, with a couple of deft drop shots to keep Nehwal on her toes. The Indian still led 5-3 with Tunjung getting herself into a good rhythm. The world no 19 found success with moving Nehwal back-and-forth with a combination of fast pushes and drop shots to make it 7-7. But once Nehwal arrested that run of points with a classy cross-court half smash to re-establish her lead, it was one-way traffic. One could hear the crowd go ‘oooh!’ as she played a brilliant back-hand flick to return Tunjung’s down-the-line smash to take a 17-11 lead.
The Indian, world No 10, then had nine match points and wrapped up the match in 30 minutes, much like Tai did earlier against He Bingjao.
In the men’s singles semi-final earlier, defending champion Srikanth Kidambi was outplayed by world No 1 Kento Momota in straight games. Read the report of that match here.