World No.6 and top seed Saina Nehwal progressed through to the semifinals of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold after beating Sayaka Sato 13-21 21-15 21-14 in a tricky contest in Basel on Friday.
The opening game saw Sato get off the blocks quickly as she took a 4-1 lead to put the Indian under early pressure and maintained a tight hold over proceedings, by constantly chipping away with the points, not allowing Saina any breathing space and eventually clinching the game 21-13 to put massive pressure on the top seed.
After some early exchanges in the second game, the Indian seemed to be back to her elements from the 7-7 mark as she steadily began to gain the upper hand over the contest, clinching points at regular intervals and not allowing her Japanese opponent any room to dominate. The constant chipping away of the points eventually led to the Indian winning the second game 21-15.
The decider saw Saina get off the blocks quickly as she took a 3-0 lead but a quick comeback from Sato ensured that the lead was cut short to one at the interval with the Indian leading 11-10.
However, there was no room of a comeback for Sato after the break as Saina dominated proceedings completely to win 10 out of the next 14 points to clinch the game 21-14 and make her way into the semifinals of the competition.
She will now face Wang Yihan in the semifinals on Saturday.
Final Scoreline- Saina Nehwal beat Sayaka Sato 13-21 21-15 21-14
HS Prannoy also progresses
The last match of the day provided the fans some serious thrill as HS Prannoy pulled through a superb 21-18 22-24 21-19 win over Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand to progress through to the semifinals of the competition, where he will be up against Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei.
