Saina enters semis: Beats her compatriot Sindhu in straight games

Jakarta: Former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal asserted her supremacy over Olympic silver medallist P. V. Sindhu with a straight game victory to enter the semifinals of the $3,50,000 Indonesia Masters, here on Friday.

London Olympics bronze medallist Saina, who is coming back from an ankle injury, gave ample display of her powerful game as she overcame Sindhu 21-13, 21-19 in an all-Indian women’s singles quarterfinal clash.

“I m happy to b on the winning side against Sindhu today ... It was a really tough match,” Saina tweeted after the match that lasted 37 minutes.

Saina, who has a silver and a bronze at World Championships, will next face Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon, seeded fourth, who dumped Glasgow World Champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in another match. Saina has an 8-5 head-to-head record against Ratchanok.

Young men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stunned fourth seeded and World No. 6 Denmark pair of Mads Conrad-Petersen & Mads Pieler Kolding 23-21, 15-21, 21-19 in a match that lasted an hour and six minutes.

The World No. 32 Indian pair, who had beaten the Danish pair at the French Open pre-quarterfinals last year, fought back from 9-11 and 12-16 in the decider to eke out the hard- fought win.

Satwik and Chirag, who had reached the quarters at Korea Open as well last year, will face top seeds Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo next.

Playing Sindhu for the first time outside India, Saina produced her best and never let the advantage slip after leading 3-0 early on in the first game. Despite Sindhu fighting back and making it 4-4, Saina continued to dominate and entered the break with 11-9 advantage. Saina continued her good run after the intervaland grabbed the opening game 21-13 with a fine display on the court.