India’s Badminton Queen Saina Nehwal  has won the Women’s Singles Championship  of Indonesia Open Super Series Premier badminton at Jakarta today, by defeating China’s Xuerui Li.
Saina, just like her quarterfinals clash against another Chinese Shixian Wang, survived nervous moments before crossing the hurdle.
Saina, the World No. 5 upstaged the reigning All England and Asian Champion 13-21, 22-20, 21-19 after a tantalisingly close match for her maiden Super Series Premier crown and second in as many weeks following the victory at the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold event in Bangkok last Sunday. For the Chinese, it was her first loss in five straight finals and first to Saina in two years, making the head-to-head record 4-2 in her favour.
“I just love coming here. I get great crowd support and I feel like a champion everytime I step on the court,” said Sania of the tournament which was awarded Super Series Premier status from Super Series tag last year and is at par with the prestigious All England Championships.
The final lasting 1 hour 5 minutes provided a great spectacle to the badminton fans with both players indulging in long rallies ending with power-packed smashes.
Saina was at the receiving end before pulling off a memorable win.
She looked out of sorts in the first game and posed little resistance against her opponent’s down the line smashes and crafty net play. Li was one game up 15 minutes into the contest.
The Indian, realising the need of a change in strategy, attacked more in the second and gained a 13-8 cushion. That was when Xuerui’s fighting capabilities came to the fore as cut Saina’s lead to 13-12 and then went on to take six straight points from 14-18 to secure two match points. Saina, however, managed to regain her composure to level the match.
The decider had everyone on the edge of their seats with Saina trailing 10-11 at the mid-game break. Saina, however, did manage to maintain a slender lead from there on. Unforced errors started to creep in from Li’s racquet and Saina earned crucial points by attacking more on the body and was ahead 19-16. The 22-year-old did not squander the advantage this time around and shut the door on her opponent with a forehand winner.
A couple of net cords going either way added more excitement towards the finish.
Earlier  in Semifinals, she squandered a comfortable 16-9 lead in the first game to let Ji Hyun Sung come back into the contest. The South Korean made it 17-17 before earning a game point on 20-19. Saina, however, was able to arrest her opponent’s momentum by taking the next three points.
Saina was put under pressure in the second game too. Trailing 13-16, she fought back by running through the next five points and closed out the match with a forehand smash.
However, Parupalli Kashyap’s impressive run in the tournament ended with a loss to local favourite Simon Santoso in the men’s singles semi-finals.
Kashyap lacked the consistency he possessed in the earlier matches and went down 15-21, 12-21 to the World No.9.
The 26th-ranked Indian would be happy with his maiden last four finish in a Super Series Premier event where he stunned top seed Chen Long and beat another higher-ranked player, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark.
Kashyap had raised hopes of another upset going into the semifinals but he could not put up a fight against Santoso, a player he is yet to beat in four meetings.
He had his moments in both the games but unforced errors, especially at the net, let him down.
It was 14-14 in the first game before Santoso gained a 18-14 lead to draw first blood in the match. Besides the lethal smashes and delightful net play, the home crowd cheering for him on every point added to hisa dvantage.
It seemed Kashyap would fight back after taking a 5-1 lead in the second game. But that wasn’t to be as he committed far too many errors at the net and failed to defend Santoso’s powerful smashes on most occasions.