Saina Nehwal defeated Denmark’s Tine Baun 21-17, 21-18 yesterday to become the first Indian singles player to reach the finals of the BWF World Superseries Finals.

Saina Nehwal

Earlier, Jwala Gutta and Valiyaveetil Diju had achieved the feat in 2009, where they were defeated by the pair of Christinna Pedersen and Joaquim Nielsen.

This was Nehwal’s fourth consecutive win in the tournament in Liuzhou (China), having topped Group B en route to the elimination stage. She took just 35 minutes in disposing of the World No 5. Nehwal will face stiff competition when she squares off against World No 1 Yihan Wang in the final of the season-ending tournament today.

source: http://www.mid-day.com/ Home> Sports> International / IANS / New Delhi / December 18th, 2011