Saina Nehwal was the lone Indian to reach the semifinal of the Indonesia Masters BWF World Tour Super 500 badminton tournament in Jakarta on Friday after compatriot PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth lost their respective quarterfinal encounters.
Nehwal, the eighth seed, made it to her second successive semifinal in 2019 with a convincing 21-7, 21-18 win over Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand.
But that was the only positive result for the Indian contingent as Kidambi Srikanth’s struggle with clearing the quarterfinal hurdle continued as he went down 21-18, 21-19 against local favourite Jonatan Christie and Sindhu was outplayed 21-11, 21-12 in just 37 minutes by world champion Carolina Marin.
Nehwal, who began the proceedings for India, was on a roll in the opening game, stringing together series of five and four consecutive points to ensure that Chochuwong was not even in the contest.
The second game was a closer affair with the Thai shuttler opening up a 8-4 for lead. However, Nehwal never allowed Chochuwong to run away with the lead and caught up with her opponent at 12-12.
The Indian did miss one match point after taking three straight points from 17-17 but the result was never in doubt as she wrapped up the match in just 33 minutes to set up a last four encounter against He Bingjiao of China, the sixth seed.
Later in the day, Srikanth bumped into an inform Christie and though he showed glimpses of the variety of strokes and speed that helped him win four Superseries titles in 2017, the Indian was always playing second fiddle.
The Asian Games gold medallist, playing in front of his home crowd, kept Srikanth away from the net and though the Indian managed to fight back in both the games after conceding sizeable leads, it was not enough for a turnaround.
In the opening game, Christie raced to a 13-8 lead before Srikanth managed to counter his attacking game with a flatter stroke trajectory and strong defensive showing to take an 18-16 lead. However, the Indonesian simply changed gears thereafter to clinch five straight points to pocket the game.
Christie then won six straight points in the second game and at one point lead 14-7. The quarterfinal, at that stage, looked like a no- contest, similar to the Indonesian’s second round match against Shi Yuqi where he raced through the second game.
However, Srikanth wasn’t one to give up as he stitched together three series of four consecutive points, banking on his defence and when he pulled level for the first time in the game at 19-19, he had the momentum going his way.
But Christie earned a match point with a down-the-line smash and a crosscourt net-lift sealed the semi-final spot. There was some controversy at the end with Srikanth taking a bit too long to challenge the call on time. With Christie celebrating, the Indian was left arguing with the chair umpire. It won’t have mattered in the final analysis since television replays showed that the shuttle had landed well in.
India’s hope of two semifinalists in the women’s singles section were, however, dashed when Sindhu failed to match the pace and variety of Marin in the last match of the day.
The match began at breathe-neck speed as both players tried to hurry the other. But this was clearly Marin territory and the Spaniard simply opened up a 11-5 lead, catching Sindhu off guard with her cross court drops and smashes.
And as the match progressed, Sindhu simply struggled to find a game plan to stop the quick moving Marin. The Indian did show some glimpses of her resilience by drawing the Spaniard in a few long rallies but that effort was not enough to avoid a thrashing.
