Jakarta: World no 12 Saina Nehwal got the better of fellow Indian and Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu in straight sets to advance to the semi-final of the $350,000 Indonesia Masters on Friday.
Coming back from an ankle injury, Nehwal put up a dominant display against Sindhu to beat her 21-13, 21-19 in a high octane quarter-final match.
The London Olympics bronze medalist will next go up against fourth seeded Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand who defeated World Champion Nozomi Okuhara in another match. Saina would walk into her match with a 8-5 head-to-head record against Ratchanok.
Saina, playing Sindhu for the first time outside India took an early 3-0 lead in the first game and although Sindhu came back to draw things at 4-4, the 27-year-old continued to dominate proceedings as she went into the break leading 11-9.
After the break, she continued to maintain a control over the game and raced to an 18-10 advantage. But despite Sindhu won three more points, the veteran Saina ended up winning the first game.
The second game was however, more of an evenly matched contest. The duo were locked in at 3-3 before Glasgow World Champion silver medalist Sindhu took a 10-5 advantage. But Saina didn’t let the game slip away and won straight five points to level things at 10-10.
The battle grew even intense with the celebrated shuttlers giving it their all and things were levelled at 14-14 before a long rally, which showed that none would give up easily. However, Saina got three points to extend her lead to 17-14 and eventually emerged as the winner. As a result of this victory, Saina would thus compete in her first semi-final since the World Championship last year in August.
Saina and Sindhu have battled each other twice in the international circuit so far with each having a victory. Saina had defeated Sindhu in the Syed Modi Grand Prix in 2014 and the latter avenged her loss last year at the India Open Super Series.
Saina, who has won a silver and a bronze in World Championships had defeated Sindhu in the summit clash of the Senior National Badminton Championship last year.