Saina Nehwal and H.S.
Saina Nehwal and H.S. Prannoy registered fighting victories in the last eight contests of the women’s and men’s singles events respectively to reach the semi-finals of the $120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Basel on Saturday.
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.
The Olympic bronze medallist will next take on her fierce rival Wang Yihan, seeded third. 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 the men’s singles, 13th seed Prannoy took almost an hour to beat Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-18, 22-24, 21-9. The world no. 27 Indian will next face Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei.
