Saina lone survivor in Malaysian Super Series

Saina Nehwal emerged as the lone survivor in the season-opener Malaysian Super series, staving off the challenge from Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei even as compatriot Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand fell by the wayside, here on Thursday.
    
Eighteen-year-old Saina rode on her smashes and good net play to survive the scary onslaught waged by Chen in an edge-of-the-seat second-round clash to reach the quarter-final.
    
The world number 10 beat Chen 21-16, 19-21, 21-19 in a thrilling battle that lasted 48 minutes.
    
"It was a very tough match. I really had to stretch a lot. She has a very good defence and a good backhand as well."
    
"The first game was easy but after that she was excellent, she was picking up all the shots and the third game was really close."
    
"She was leading throughout the third game and some line calls also went against me. When we were 16-all, Chen got two points and I lost my cool. I am happy I pulled it off at last," Saina said after the match.
    
In the quarter-final, Saina will face Hongyan Pi of France whom she had defeated in the round-robin league of World Super Series Masters Finals here last month.
    
"I have defeated Pi here last month, so I don't have to do anything different. She is a very good player and has defeated some quality players in the tournament but tomorrow is a different day and I will put my best foot forward,"
    
In the first game, Saina did not give her opponent a chance and opened up a 13-9 lead and although Chen tried to draw level, Saina gradually moved on to 17-13 before wrapping up the game 21-16.
    
Stung by the reversal, Chen rallied to open an 8-6 lead in the second and then moved to 11-8. Even though Saina drew level at 12-12, the Chinese Taipei shuttler turned the table and pocketed and the game 21-19 to stay afloat.
    
With the match positioned at 1-1, the third game was a virtual cliffhanger with Chen wresting early initiative and taking a three-point lead at 12-9.
    
Pushed to the brink, Saina, a quarter-finalist at the Beijing Olympics, battled her heart out, drawing level at 12-12 and going neck-and-neck at 14-14, 16-16 and 18-18.
    
Levelled at 19-all, the 18-year-old Indian broke free and grabbed the next two points to seal the game.
    
However, there was disappointment for other Indians in the fray -- Chetan Anand and Anup Sridhar.
    
Faced with an uphill task of upsetting world number four Sony Dwi Kuncoro, fit-again Anup Sridhar played his heart out but failed to get past the Indonesian shuttler and went down 12-21, 18-21 in 34-minutes.
    
After losing the first game rather easily, Anup waged a fightback and opened a 9-7 lead but Sony bounced back to grab the lead 15-13. The second-seed Indonesian then unleashed a flurry of smashes and raced away to 20-13.
    
But a gutsy Anup raised his game and saved five match points and closed the gap to 18-20 before his rival pocketed the winning point to seal it 21-18.
    
In contrast, Chetan was no match for world number five Peter Hoeg Gade of Denmark, who spanked the Indian 21-7, 21-8 in just 20 minutes.
    
There was more disappointment in the mixed doubles match as the Indian pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta were sent packing 21-18, 21-14 by local pair Kien Keat Koo and Hui Lin Ng in the second round early in the day.