Saina to face Sun Yu in final of the Australian Open
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal stormed into the final of the $ 750,000 Australian Open Superseries badminton tournament here on Saturday, beating World No.2 Wang Yihan of China 21-8, 21-12 in a semi-final. World No.8 Saina dominated the proceedings from the start and lost little sweat to beat Yihan in straight games in the women's singles at the Sydney Olympic Park to enter her maiden final of the season. Saina, who had clinched the Australian Open title two years ago, took a 7- 1 lead before extending it 11-2 at the interval mark in the opening game. Returning from the break, the 26-year-old continued her rampaging form with a combination down-the-line and cross court hits as well as some fine body shots, to take the game 21-8 away from her Chinese opponent.
The second game was no different as Saina took a 6-3 lead before making it 11-4 at the interval. After the break, it was Saina all the way as the Chinese shuttler found the going difficult to lose the game and the match 12-21. This was the Hyderabadi's first win against Wang in their last seven outings. She will face China's Sun Yu in the final on Sunday.
Earlier, it was heartbreak for World No. 13 Kidambi Srikanth, who crashed out of the tournament after going down 20-22, 13-21 to Hans-Kristian Vittinghu of Denmark in a men's singles semi-final.
The 23-year-old Srikanth, who had a 2-1 head-to-head record against the World No. 12 Dane prior to the match, gave a tough fight in the first game to reach 20-20, which was anybody's game. However, Vittinghus won the crucial point and sealed the game. In the second game, the Guntur- born shuttler kept the pressure but lost momentum at crucial times to fall behind. In the end, the pressure was too much to handle and Srikanth lost the game to bow out of his second semi-final of 2016.
Earlier on Friday, sStar shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth registered straight wins in the women's and men's singles matches to storm into the semi-finals of the $ 750,000 Australian Open Superseries 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.
In the opening game, Saina trailed briefly but bounced back superbly to force a tiebreaker. After that it was the Indian who dictated the terms in the second game to pocket it with ease.
The World No.8 will now take on fourth seed Yihan Wang in the semi-finals on Saturday against whom she trails 4-11 in head-to-head face-offs. In men's singles, Srikanth had a relatively easy outing against the South Korean qualifier. The Indian will now take on Denmark's Vittinghus Hans-Kristian in the semi-finalsMeanwhile, in a major upset, Chinese top seed Chen Long crashed out of the tournament after going down 21-14, 21-17 to Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in a 44-minute clash. Ginting will now face South Korea's Jeon Hyeok Jin in the semi-finals.