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India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal has entered in to the Semi finals of the $500,000 All England Open Badminton Championships at the Barclaycard Arena by defeating World No.5 Yihan Wang with 21-19, 21-6. The Indian World No.3 Saina improved her career records against the Olympic silver medallist to 2-8.

"I'm happy with how I played. My strokes were good. We have had great fights in the past and I have a poor record against her so it's unbelievable I was able to beat her with less than 10 points in the second game," Nehwal said after the match.

On her winning, she said, "I wasn't expecting to play tomorrow. It's a big match and it won't be easy. I will get some rest and think about that later."

In the other semifinal, World champion Carolina Marin will face seventh seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

Saina will now face another Chinese Sun Yu in the last-four stage. Yu advanced after her Thai rival, eighth seed Ratchanok Intanon, retired midway through the match with the Chinese player leading 21-11, 19-21, 19-13.

-Kannamsai