SINGAPORE — She arrived in Singapore knowing she was not in the best of form but wanting to give it her all. Yesterday at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, second-seed Saina Nehwal’s quest for the women’s singles title at the US$200,000 (S$255,000) Li-Ning Singapore Open came to a shuddering halt.
The 23-year-old from India surrendered to fatigue, losing her quarter-final match to Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri 21-17, 13-21, 13-21 in a 58-minute encounter.
Said Nehwal: “I was tired during the game, playing continuously took a toll on my body and my movements were not fast. I didn’t have the stamina, my legs were too heavy and I didn’t move well on court.”
For Fanetri, victory was sweet and almost instantaneous revenge over her world No 4 opponent, whom she had lost to in a three-game tussle the opening round of the Indonesian Open earlier this month.
The 24-year-old from Jakarta was prepared to go the distance if it meant getting through to challenge for the title. “I lost to Saina in the Indonesian Open because it was a long play. I made more unforced errors than her,” said Fanetri, recalling the match, which included a long second game won by Nehwal 29-27. “This time, I was prepared to be tired and make sure I wouldn’t make as many errors.”
Fanetri will next meet fourth seed Wang Yihan of China, who brushed aside compatriot and 2011 All-England champion Wang Shixian 21-18, 21-15.
Today’s other semi-final will see top seed Li Xuerui taking on fellow Chinese Sun Yu, who came through the qualifiers. FELICIA QUICK
Selected quarter-final results:
Men’s singles
Nguyen Tien Minh (VIE) bt Marc Zwiebler (GER) 23-21, 11-8 rtd, Tommy Sugiarto (INA) bt Rajiv Ouseph (ENG) 21-19, 21-18, Takuma Ueda (JPN) bt Kento Momota (JPN) 12-14, 21-19, Boonsak Ponsana (THA) bt Chong Wei Feng (MAS) 21-10, 21-19
Men’s doubles
Ko Sung Hyun/Lee Yong Dae (KOR) bt Maneepong Jongjit/Nipitphon Puangpuapech (THA) 21-9, 21-16, Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng (CHN) bt Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda (JPN) 24-22, 21-14, Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA) bt Hiroyuki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa (JPN) 21-15, 23-21, Shin Baek Choel/Yoo Yeon Seong (KOR) bt Hiroyuki Saeki/Ryota Taohata (JPN) 21-14, 21-12
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