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Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal staved off a scare from Indonesia's Adrianti Firdasari to reach the women's singles quarter-finals in the Singapore Open Badminton Super Series in Singapore City on Thursday.
The sixth seeded Indian ace beat 19th-ranked Firdasari 21-18, 17-21, 21-17 in a 50-minute battle to set up a clash with third seed Chinese Lin Wang on Friday.
Wang, who is world No 4, beat Korean Hye Youn Hwang 21-10, 21-10 in another pre-quarter-final.
Saina trailed 7-8 in the first game but held her nerve. She restored parity at 9-9 and then opened up a lead of five points at 17-12. The Indonesian, however, narrowed the gap to 19-18 but the Hyderabadi girl raced away thereafter to seal the game 21-18.
In the second game, Saina established a 6-3 lead but Firdasari recovered to make it 7-11. And although Saina played her heart out, she couldn't prevent the Indonesian from taking the game.
The decider too was close. Saina opened up a 4-1 lead but the Indonesian leveled scores at 9-9 and 11-11. But the world No 7 Indian kept the pressure on and stayed ahead at 15-12, 16-13 and 18-15 before finally sealing the match at 21-16.