Saina Nehwal storms into Indonesia Masters finals

Saina Nehwal of India hits a return during the women's singles quarter-final match against Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand at the 2019 Daihatsu Indonesia Masters tournament in Jakarta on January 25, 2019. Pic/AFP

Two-time Commonwealth Games champion Saina Nehwal stormed into the finals of the Indonesia Masters with a win over sixth seed He Bingjiao on Saturday. Eighth seed Saina, who had reached the finals at the last edition, defeated her Chinese opponent 18-21, 21-12, 21-18 in their maiden meeting.

The Indian shuttler raced to an early 11-7 lead in the opening game but Bingjiao made a solid comeback to seal the first game in her favour. In the second game, Saina regained her rhythm and fought back in a much better style 21-12 to take the game in the decider.

The final game saw both the shuttlers in a neck-to-neck battle. However, Saina raced ahead and prevailed 21-18 over Bingjiao to advance to the finals of the prestigious tournament.

Saina will next face the winner of the second semi-final match between three-time World Champion and Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain or third-seeded Chen Yufei of China.

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