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Paris: London Olympics bronze medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the final of the French Super Series with a classy 21-19, 21-8 victory over German Juliane Schenk in the semi-finals of the women’s singles here on Saturday.
The 22-year-old Indian, who had defeated Juliane in the final of the Denmark Open last week in Odense, won the match in just 36 minutes. Saina displayed some brilliant skills and stamped her authority over Juliane.
She showed once again why she is revered as one of the best badminton player in the world as she hardly put a foot wrong. She will take on Minatsu Mitani of Japan in the final on Sunday.
The world No. 3 was erratic initially and conceded a narrow 1-3 lead. But she soon played to her strengths, playing down the line smashes and engaging Juliane in long rallies to make it 6-6.
Juliane tried to bring Saina to the nets and exerted herself to get behind the shuttles and moved into the break with a two-point cushion with the help of two cross-court smashes.
After the breather, the German moved to a 15-10 lead with a couple of points at the nets and back of the court. Juliane was brilliant in her returns but she failed to judge the shuttle speed and kept hitting long to allow Saina claw back at 16-16.
Thereafter came a brief interruption when Juliane was allowed to test the shuttle speed following her repeated requests to the chair umpire. On resumption, she immediately gathered three quick points to move to 19-16.
A delightful net stroke helped Saina to make it 17-19 and then what followed was a scintillating rally, where Juliane lost her racquet while returning a shot to allow the Indian gather another point.
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