Birmingham: Saina Nehwal took a step closer to becoming the first Indian woman ever to win the All England Open title when she reached the semi-finals after a long drawn-out battle with Wang Shixian.
The World No. 3 defeated the 2011 winner from China 23-21, 19-21, 21-16 in a long, fluctuating and tense affair, in which mistakes were mixed with well constructed rallies, with Nehwal chiselling out a match-winning lead after the interval in the third game. Saina engaged her rival into long rallies to eventually prevailed 23-21 19-21 21-16 over Shixian in an hour and 14 minutes match to equal her exploits at the 2010 edition of the USD 400,000 Super series event.
The Hyderabadi will next take on the winner between fourth seed German Juliane Schenk and eight seed Thai Ratchanok Intanon on Saturday.
“She has the kind of game which makes it possible to come back, and I’ve seen her do that before. I tried to make sure I kept my focus right to the end and I think I did that,” said Saina, adding, “I have to handle the pressure of expectations from the Indian fans and hopefully I am doing that. I’m just happy to get through this.”
Meanwhile, Parupalli Kashyap's dream of crusing ahead in the tournament ended after his loss to second seed Chen Long as the Chinese beat the world number nine 21-16 21-10 in the men's singles competition.
ISN/inputs from All England Open official website