Mangalore, Aug 2, 2012: Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal storms into semi finals women’s singles badminton as she beats fifth-seeded former world number one from Denmark, Tine Baun in London on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Saina beat Dutch Jie Yao as she reached the women’s singles quarter-finals of the London Olympics, in London.
The 22-year-old shuttle brought some cheer to the Indian camp on an otherwise dismal day on Wednesday as she dismantled her Netherlands opponents with a 21-14, 21-16 scoreline in a tussle which lasted 40 minutes.
The Chinese-born girl saved a few game points, mainly because of the error of judgement by Saina and a couple of loose shots but soon the Indian pocketed the game with a beautiful net play.
In the second game, Saina brought out her variations and involved Jie in rallies to lead 11-7 at the break.
Jie fought back to narrow the gap to 14-12 but that didn’t affect the Indian as she moved ahead to 19-15 with a drop and then executed a cross court smash to earn the match point.