WORLDS 2013 QF – Saina upset by old rival

Bae Yeon Ju is through to the semi-finals of the Wang Lao Ji BWF World Badminton Championships after upsetting India’s 3^rd-seeded Saina Nehwal in straight games.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent live in Guangzhou.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

Saina Nehwal may have been the one who eliminated Bae Yeon Ju (pictured) from her very first international tournament but it is the Korean who has found her way into the semi-final of the Wang Lao Ji BWF World Badminton Championships.

Bae started slow and looked as though she would be conceding the first game when she was trailing 11-17.  But then the gutsy Korean went on an 8-2 run and eventually turned the game around and saved one game point before taking it on her second opportunity.

Things just continued to go her way in the second game and as Saina Nehwal (pictured right) became increasingly discouraged, Bae’s shots just seemed to get more and more precise.  The draught that troubled every other singles shuttler on the centre court on quarter-finals day just seemed to stop every time the 22-year-old Korean hit a shot as she dominated the game 21-9.

“Early on in the match, I was too greedy and my body felt heavy and my strokes just weren’t going the way I wanted,” said Bae Yeon Ju after the match.  “Later on, my shots started to come into line and then my confidence level followed.

“There was a draught in the hall but it was just a matter of figuring out which direction it was blowing and how hard and adjusting my shots accordingly.”

Asked whether she envied the attention that Saina Nehwal gets from the media in her country, where she seems to appear in the newspapers day after day, Bae Yeon Ju laughed and said, “No, I don’t.  I guess it’s nice to be famous but it also means I’d be under a whole lot more pressure to win.”

Bae now faces Olympic champion Li Xuerui (pictured) for a spot in the finals.  After suffering a Li Xuerui jinx dating back to their junior days, Bae is now is the only player apart from Wang Yihan to have beaten the world #1 twice in the last two years.

Of her upcoming match against Li, Bae Yeon Ju said, “I’ve played her several times before so as long as I’m not greedy and I am ready to run…we’ll see.

Bae Yeon Ju confessed she was not aware that she was the first Korean in 18 years to reach a World Championship women’s singles final and thus that it had not affected her:  “I came here with the goal of making at least the semi-final but still my intention has always been to concentrate on my first match and then worry about my second, my third, and so on.

Click here for complete quarter-final results