Saina Nehwal becomes first Indian woman to qualify for All England final

 

Saina Nehwal on Saturday March 07,2015 scalped yet another Chinese shuttler to make her first All England Badminton Championships final and become the first Indian woman to do so

Saina Hehwal defeated Wang Yihan 21-19, 21-6 in the quarterfinals on Friday
 and on Saturday defeated Sun Yu 21-13, 21-13 in the SF's




Saina  Nehwal is the third Indian to qualify for the singles finals, after legendary Prakash Padukone and her former mentor Pullela Gopichand. Padukone and Gopichand won the championships in 1980 and 2001 respectively.

The world-number three from India had earlier defeated her Chinese nemesis and former World Champion Wang Yihan for the first time in more than two years in their last-eight encounter at the Barclaycard Arena

Saina Nehwal went onto win the first set 21-13. After a brief fight-back from the Chinese, the 24-year-old Indian took the second set in an identical score-line to reach her maiden All England final.

Saina Nehwal will play the winner of second semi-final match between reigning World Champion and sixth-seeded Carolina Marin of Spain and seventh-seeded Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the women's singles title clash.

Note
In her previous eight attempts at the prestigious tournament, Saina Nehwal reached the semi-finals twice in 2010 and 2013. She lost in the last eight stage last year.