Saina Nehwal and K Srikanth have entered the semi finals of the Australian Super Series Badminton.
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Star shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the finals of the $750,000 Australian Open Superseries defeating World No. 2 Yihan Wang of China 21-8, 21-12 in the semifinals. World No. 12 Yu defeated Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 21-18, 21-9 in 41 minutes of badminton action to reach the semifinals round, where Li will be looking to take home her very first Australian Open title.
Playing the third match of the day, Saina, seeded seventh, beat second-seeded Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 28-26, 21-16 in 56 minutes while Srikanth overcame Hee Heo Kwang 21-18, 21-17 in a 36-minute quarter-final clash.
Saina will next take on the victor of the match between fourth seed Wang Yihan and eighth seed Tai Tzu Ying.
Saina was at her dominating best in the opening game.
But then Saina held on to her nerves and saved game point with a cross-court drop which the Thai player tried to dribble at the net, but the shuttle hit the top of the chord. However, she attacked right from the first game and put in a flawless display right from the first game.
In the second game, Saina once again opened up an 11-7 lead at the break and extended it to 15-8 and 18-9.
13 Kidambi Srikanth of India lost 20-22, 13-21 to Hans-Kristian Vittinghu of Denmark to crash out of the tournament. However, Vittinghus powered ahead in the second set and won the game 21-13.
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A rushing net shot error and a smash gone wide gave two points to Srikanth, who gifted away seven match points to the Dane after finding the net.
