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Saina Nehwal advanced to the semi-finals of the Badminton World Super Series Masters finishing runner-up in Group B and earning a match-up with red-hot Chen Wang of Hong Kong.
The Indian teenager lost her opening match to Group winner and World No. 2 Tine Rasmussen of Denmark on Thursday, but produced a remarkable turnaround today to beat hometown favourite and No. 6 seed Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia 21-10, 17-21, 21-16 in a closely fought encounter. Earlier in the day Saina had dismantled French star Hongyan Pi, the no. 4 seed, 21-18, 21-13 to keep her hopes of qualification alive.
Her opponent in the semis Chen Wang has won all three of her matches so far, including a thumping victory over country woman and top seed M i Zhou. She has however not been as effective in dismissing ‘lesser' opposition dropping a game each to 8th seed Yu Hirayama (Jap) and Huaiwen Xu (Ger).
Saina played Chen as recently as November in the Hong Kong Super Series where she was beaten by Chen 25-27, 21-14, 15-21 in a thrilling quarter final encounter than lasted just under an hour. Saina will be hoping to go one better when they clash on Saturday.
Indian fans can watch the tournament live on Neo Sports from 3:30pm onwards.
Semi-final lineup
Chen Wang (3) vs. Saina Nehwal (7)
Mi Zhou (1) vs. Tine Rasmussen (2)
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