Saina in semis of China Masters

New Delhi:

Saina Nehwal continued her rampaging form and staved off the challenge of third seed Lin Zhu of China to cruise into the semifinals of the Chinese Masters Super Series at Changzhou in China on Friday.

The national champion overcame a second game lapse to beat Zhu 21-16 21-23 21-18 in a fiercely contested match, which lasted 56 minutes.

Saina depended more on smashes to win points and quickly ran away with the first game. However, the 18-year-old shuttler could not continue the momentum and the second game slipped from her fingers.

The Indian then came back strongly and pocketed the third game to seal the match and set up a tough clash against Hong Kong's sixth seed Mi Zhou, who thumped top seed Lan Lu 10-21 21-13 21-14 in the other quarter-final.

Zhou had inflicted a crushing first round defeat on Saina in the Yonex Japan Super Series tournament last week.