Fuzhou: India’s Olympic bronze medal winning shuttler Saina Nehwal reached the women’s singles final of the $700,000 China Open Super Series Premier here Saturday but the story of the day was Kidambi Srikanth, who reached his maiden Super Series summit clash where he will take on five-time World Champion Lin Dan Sunday.
While sixth seed Saina defeated Chinese Liu Xin 21-17, 21-17 in 47 minutes in the semi-final, men’s singles World No.16 Srikanth advanced after German Marc Zwiebler retired from the last four contest with a right angle injury when the score read 21-11, 13-7 in favour of the Indian.
“I never expected to beat three Chinese. I made some corrections since the Chinese players were catching me on some aspects of my game. I’ve been working on some drills with my coach. The approach has changed; beating three Chinese players in a row is not easy. I have also learnt a few new strokes. I never thought I’d learn them,” said Saina. (IANS)