Saina Nehwal assures herself of bronze at World Badminton Championships

Indias Saina Nehwal reacts after winning her quarterfinal womens singles match against Scotlands Kirsty Gilmour during the 2017 BWF World Championships of badminton at Emirates Arena in Glasgow on August 25 2017 PicAFPSaina Nehwal dished out a gritty performance to stave off the challenge from local favourite Kristy Gilmour and assure herself of a bronze by entering thesemifinals of the World Championship here todayThe 27yearold Indian who won a silver medal at the last edition at Jakarta dug deep into her reservoir to eke out a 2119 1821 2115 win over the World No 31 Gilmour in a match that lasted an hour and 14 minutes Saina thus joined compatriot and twotime bronze medallist P V Sindhu into the semifinalsThe London Olympics bronze medallist will next play seventh seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan who knocked out twotime defending champion Spains Carolina Marin 2118 1421 2115 in another matchSaina had come into the match with a 40 headtohead record against the 23yearold Scotland girl but she didnt play her in the last three years In this time Gilmour had won two silver medals at the European Championship and it was evident from her fighting spiritSaina had opened up a 62 lead but Gilmour managed to claw back It was a jump smash that helped her to draw parity at 88 and she soon moved into the break with a 118 lead after setting it up beautifully with her angled strokes Saina seemed to lack the length in her returns which could put her rival out of position and she looked frustrated as Gilmour was dictating the turns with her repertoire of strokesAt 814 the Indian won a couple of points when Gilmour hit wide and at the net A precise downtheline smash and then with Gilmour slipping during a rally meant Saina had reduced the margin to 1214 Gilmour mixed delayed strokes with deceptive angles and varying pace to set up her pointsIt worked as she led 1713 Saina managed to claw back at 1617 when Gilmour produced an onrushing return to break the momentum The scot made some errors hitting the shuttle out to allow Saina level par at 1818 A good serve gave Saina another point as she moved to game point when her rival made an error in judgement at backline and the experienced Indian sealed it when the Scot found the netIn the second game Gilmour struggled with the length as few of her lifts went long but Saina was also erratic allowing Gilmour to led 64 at one stage The Indian then caught her rival at the forecourt to draw parity at 66However Gilmour once again had the bragging rights at the break as she took the 119 lead The Scot tried to draw Saina forward and follow it up with a fastpaced return and it helped as she lead 1711The Scot constructed rallies well but she made many unforced errors which helped Saina make it 1619 Just then Gilmour produced a jump smash to move to game point butexperienced Saina played the right net shot to gain another point Gilmour found the net again but another tricky play during the rally helped her to roar back into contest when the Indian hit the netIn the decider Saina dominated the nets to lead 30 Gilmour failed to kill the rallies and faltered with her forehand turns Saina grabbed the opportunity to set up the rallies and moved to 83 before grabbing the 115 lead at the midgame interval She was helped by the Scots unforced errorsGilmour produced another towering cross smash and then triggered one at Sainas body to gain a couple of points But Saina made some good judgements with the shuttler to move to 148 The Indian gave her everything to dominate the rallies and mixed her strokes But Gilmour was always lurking behind with her equally lethal deceptions and strokeplayBut the Scot looked sluggish with her movement sometimes and her unforced errors kept coming back to haunt her as the Indian eventually grabbed seven match points with a brilliant return of serve A fighting Gilmour refused to give up and saved a couple of match points but the Indian sealed the issue when Gilmour found the net