World Badminton Championship: Saina Nehwal beats nemesis Wang Yihan to enter

Second seed Nehwal, will square off against Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri for securing a final berth. I told her not to hurry and to take a little more time while serving. Sindhu had won bronze in the 2013 and 2014 editions. She allowed Yihan to wipe out a big deficit and win the second game.

In a match of fluctuating fortunes, the 25-year-old Saina held the whip in the first game.

There was a time, when Saina would resign herself to a loss against the Chinese and that had only changed earlier this year when she hammered Yihan in the quarterfinals of the All England Championship.

Saina Nehwal hits a return against Wang Yihan during their quarter-final women’s singles match of the 2015 World Championships badminton tournament in Jakarta on Friday.

World No. 1 Wang Yihan 21-15 19-21 21-19 in an hour and 12 minutes gruelling battle in Jakarta. After that, Saina strode to victory, ” said Sharma. But it was here that Saina came up with some breathtaking strokes to move ahead of Yihan with a three point burst and then went for the kill.

Top-seed Carolina Marin of Spain had already booked her last-four spot after beating seventh-seeded Wang Shixian of China.

For the first time since 1985, there will be no Chinese challenge in the women’s semifinals of the World Championship.

India’s other quarterfinalist, PV Sindhu disappointed against Ji Hyun Sung of Korea. The Indian duo lost to Japanese pair of Naoko Fukuman and Kurumi Yonao in straight sets 25-23, 21-14. And of course, the Chinese blown away by the girl who stayed calm throughout the match, before she let out the roar.

With this win, the World No. 2 finally broke her jinx of finishing at the quarterfinals in last five outings.

Kolkata, August 14 Sports icons on Friday took to Twitter to congratulate ace shuttler Saina Nehwal for reaching the singles semi-finals at the badminton world championships on Friday. The Asian giants have dominated this competition for decades, and although they did not have a finalist in the women’s event in 1993, Ye Zhaoying and Tang Jiuhong ensured that they returned with bronze medals. Before the match, the former world number one from China had an intimidating 9-2 overall record against Saina.