Kuala Lumpur, Jan 16 (IANS) Spanish badminton great Carolina Marin struggled in her first-round match at the Malaysia Masters but managed to pull out a 21-19, 25-23 victory here on Wednesday over Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol.
Marin seemed to have the first game under control at Axiata Arena when she took a 20-15 lead on an error in the net by Jindapol, but the Thai player capitalised on some unforced errors by the Spaniard to close to 20-19, reports Efe news.
The three-time world champion and 2016 Olympic gold medalist in women's singles, however, finally clinched the opener on her fifth game point when a Jindapol forehand sailed over the back boundary line.
Marin also had a late lead in the second game, holding three match points after Jindapol committed a service error and then netted a forehand.
But the resilient Thai saved all of them, taking the score to 20-20 when the Spaniard netted a smash.
After Jindapol saved two more match points (and Marin saved one game point), the Spaniard finally clinched the tough first-round victory when the Thai player sent one final shuttle into the net.
"Tough match today but we are in the Round of 16!" the sixth-ranked Marin wrote on Twitter after defeating her 18th-ranked opponent.
Next up for the Spaniard in Thursday's round of 16 will be China's Gao Fangjie, who defeated Malaysian Soniia Cheah 19-21, 21-5, 21-13 in her opening match.
The Malaysia Masters is first of the BWF World Tour's seven Super 500 events, a level of tournament that typically attracts most of the world's best players across five events (men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles).
(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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