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Saina in semis of Indonesian Open

June 19, 2009 18:57 IST

Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal survived a scare from Hye Youn Hwang of Korea before reaching the semi-finals of the Indonesian Open Super Series in Jakarta on Friday.

The world No 8 Indian ace beat the 18th-ranked Hwang 21-7, 13-21, 21-15 in a tough women's singles quarter-final that lasted 45 minutes.

Sixth-seed Saina next faces seventh seeded Chinese Lan Lu in the Saturday's semi-finals.

Lu beat second seed Yihan Wang in another quarter-final.

Saina had things her way in the first game, but met with stiff resistance from the Korean in the next.

After leveling the score at seven, Hwang opened up a 10-7 and went on to take the game easily.

In the decider, Saina trailed 5-8 but unleashed unleashed a flurry of smashes to pocket five straight points and grab a 10-8 lead. She then called the shots to emerge a convincing winner.

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