Paris, Oct 27: India's badminton sensation Saina Nehwal entered the French Open Super Series championship semifinal on Friday night beating Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand 22-20, 22-20 in a 41-minute-long encounter.
Saina, who won the bronze medal in badminton for India at the London Olympics, defeated three-time world junior champion Ratchanok Inthanon, though the latter put up a spirited challenge.
Saina took a 11-7 lead in the first game but Ratchanok counterattacked.
The Thai player even staved off a game point and threatened to spoil Saina's game-plan by picking three points in-a-row to make level the scores at 20-all. But Saina forced the opponent into an erratic return and came up with a big smash to clinch the first game 22-20.
In the second game too, Saina was off to a decent start leading 4-0, but the Thai opponent fought back and countered with a lead of 11-8 at one stage.
Saina then levelled the score and later wrapped up the game 22-20.
Saina has moved another step closer to winning her third straight Super Series title this year.
