Swiss Open: Two-time champion Saina Nehwal, HS Prannoy reach semi-finals in Basel

Basel: Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and H S Prannoy registered fighting victories in the last eight contests of women’s and men’s singles events respectively to reach the semifinals of the USD 120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament. Two-time champion, Saina took another step towards the Swiss Open crown after ekeing out a 13-21 21-15 21-14 win over Japan’s Sayaka Sato, seeded seventh, in a 52-minute contest to take her overall head-to-head record to 5-1. [caption id=“attachment_2649472” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Saina Nehwal. AFP[/caption] The Olympic bronze medallist will next take on her fierce rival Wang Yihan, seeded 3rd. Saina has a 4-9 record against the former World No. 1 but the top seeded Indian will take confidence from her three wins against the Chinese in 2015. In men’s singles, 13th seed Prannoy took almost an hour to get across Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, seeded 16th, 21-18 22-24 21-9. The World No. 27 Indian will next face Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei. Prannoy had lost to Tzu Wei in 2014 Austrian International Challenge. Two-time World Championship bronze medallist Sindhu’s campaign came to an end after after the world number 12 lost 13-21 15-21 to He Bingjiao of China in women’s singles quarterfinals. The world number 25th Chinese took 32 minutes to saw off the Indian. PTI