2nd August, 20012, London: Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal made it to the women’s badminton singles quarter finals at the 2012 London Olympics on Wednesday – a day when 8 women badminton players were disqualified for losing their matches so that they can get a favorable opposition.
In the midst of this controversial day, Saina, who will play her second Olympic quarter final, defeated Netherlands’ Jie Yao 21-14, 21-16. The fourth seeded Indian demolished the 11th seeded Dutch and also sent a warning to her opponents.
The 1st game was quite easy for Saina as she started with a 10 – 4 lead. Jie Yao ran all over the court to match with Saina who was really impressive with her trademark masked drop shots. The 2nd game was a bit tight. At first Nehwal had a 5 – 2 lead, but later the Dutch player managed to snatch a 8 – 5 lead. After that Saina fleetly came back into the match as she recovered the deficit and took a 13 – 9 lead. Finally, the game ended in 21 – 16.
Earlier in the day, another Indian Parupalli Kashyap made history by becoming the very first Indian male badminton player to go into the singles quarterfinals at the Olympic Games. He defeated Niluka Karunaratne (Sri Lanka) 21 – 14, 15 – 21, 21 – 9 at Wembley Arena.
