Olympics: Saina through to semis after winning thriller

Top shuttler Saina Nehwal Thursday became the first Indian to reach the semi-finals of Olympic badminton beating Danish Tine Baun 21-15, 22-20 in the women’s singles at the Wembley Arena here. After cruising through the first game, India’s top medal hope had a harder time in the second game against 5th seed Baun. [caption id=“attachment_402657” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Saina is all smiles after reaching the semis. Reuters[/caption] A lot of unforced errors from Baun in the first game may have helped Saina on her way to victory, but the Dane turned on the heat in the second game. For every point Saina was scoring, Baun had an answer and the scores were usually locked until the Dane broke away to a 20-17 lead. It looked like Baun would score the winner and force a third game, but Saina fought back to level things at 20-20 before scoring two winners to send the nation erupting. The draw looks ominous for Saina now, with three Chinese players and Saina to vie for the medals. Saina next faces Yihan Wang, who is the 1st seed.