London: It was business as usual for the ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal as she won her second consecutive group stage match to cruise into the knockout stage of the women's singles competition of the London Olympics at the Wembley Arena here on Monday. She beat Belgium's Lianne Tan 21-4,21-14.
The world number five Indian did not receive much resistance from her opponent as she sealed the match in just 24 minutes.
Saina a strong medal prospect dominated the match from the word go and her experience saw her walk through the first game. Had it not been for some unfortunate net shot, the Indian could have won the first game with higher margin.
In the second game, story looked no different even though Lianne came out with a new vigor and temperament.
Saina who hit the nets couple of times in the first game repeated it in the second game to give her opponents some easy points, but then as the match progressed she took control of the proceedings and went into the break at 11-8.
After the breather, Saina used her expertise immensely and she exploited her opponent and in no time raced off to the match point at 20-12.
Lianne saved a couple of match points after Saina committed a few unforced errors which delayed the inevitable a little, but then a brilliant angled drop by the Indian saw her wrap up the match in style and move into the pre-quarters.
By Indian Sports News Network
