Defending champion Saina moves a step closer to the title

Jakarta: Saina Nehwal, India’s top shuttler,  reached the semifinals of the Indonesian Open, with a straight-game victory over Denmark’s Tine Baun today. The fourth seed registered a hard-fought 21-19, 21-19 win over Tine, seeded eighth, in a match that lasted for 37 minutes. [caption id=“attachment_31079” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Saina has lost two close matches against the Dane in their previous two encounters.  Liu Jin/AFP”]  [/caption] The 21-year-old will now take on Chinese Taipei’s Shao Chieh Cheng in the semifinals on Saturday. Unseeded Shao beat seventh seed Xin Liu 21-17, 21-15 in another quarterfinal match. Saina has lost two close matches against the Dane in their previous two encounters but today the world No. 4 made sure that she doesn’t fall in the same trap and raised her game during crucial moments to wrest initiative. Saina had opened a three-point lead initially but Tine reeled off seven straight points to zoom to 10-6 but the Indian caught up with the Dane at 12-all and after a neck-and-neck battle kept her upper hand to pocket the first game. The girl from Hyderabad finally broke the norm from 17-all and reached 20-18 and though the warring Dane saved a match point, it was all over soon. The 2008 and 2010 All England winner, Tine had beaten Saina at the All England Super Series in 2010 and Hong Kong Super Series in 2007. PTI