Ace shuttler Nehwal reaches final of Thailand Open, a perfect fillip for her prospects at the London Olympics
Saina Nehwal continued her winning spree, which would surely boost her confidence ahead of the London Olympics 2012. The top-rated Indian made the final of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold badminton beating Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 24-22, 21-11 here on Saturday.
Saina Nehwal
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The World No 5 took 42 minutes to get the better of 17th-ranked Buranaprasertsuk in the semi-finals. Saina faces another Thai Ratchanok Inthanon in the summit clash on Sunday. World No 11 Inthanon beat Lin Wang of China 21-13, 21-19 in the other semi-final encounter. Top seed Saina did most of the hard work in the first game, staging a remarkable fightback after trailing 2-9. She also saved three game points before converting her first one.
The tables turned in the second game as Saina took a 9-3 lead and raced to victory. The Indian had the psychological advantage over her Thai opponent having beaten her on three previous occasions.
Saina’s coach and former All-England champion Pullela Gopichand had said before the tournament that it would be a great confidence booster for the Indian ahead of the Olympics. “It’s a good event and winning any of these tournaments would boost her confidence before the Olympics,” Gopi had said. Earlier, Saina skipped the Singapore Open.u00a0
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