op seed Saina Nehwal stormed into the semifinal of the China Open badminton tournament with a 21-16, 21-13 win against Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in Fuzhou on Friday. Saina will play Chinese seventh seed Wang Yihan for a spot in the final. Wang defeated fourth seed Tai Tzu Ying 21018, 21-17.
Saina is also the defending champion having won the 2014 edition.
In the other half of the draw, Chinese Olympic champion Li Xuerui will clash with teammate Wang Shixian, who upset Spanish world champion Carolina Marin and tournament second seed 21-13, 10-21, 21-10.
Saina broke little sweat in her clash with Nozomi. In three previous meetings, the Indian champion had never lost a match and on Thursday, she kept the pressure on the unseeded Japanese girl.
The players went neck and neck till 6-6, but after that Saina broke away, built small leads and finally won in 21 minutes.
The second game was rather one-sided with Saina building a six-point lead (9-3) and never looking back. At 18-10, it was smooth sailing for Saina and she closed the match in 42 minutes.
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