New Delhi, Oct 7: Indian ace Sania Nehwal on Thursday, Oct 7 cruised into the semifinals of women's singles badminton tournament at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Saina defeated her one-time doubles partner Anna Rice 21-16, 21-13 to book a place for herself in the top four.

"Anna is a different player now. She must have put on a lot of hard work coming into the tournament because she was retrieving a lot of my strokes compared to last time we played against each other in 2008.

"We have been friends. I think she is going full throttle as it is her last tournament," the victor said.

The stellar performance is not only limited to Saina Nehwal as the whole badminton team seems to be keen on adding gold to India's medal tally.

In mixed doubles, Jwala Gutta and V Diju defeated Grace Gao and NG Toby 21-8, 21-12, while Chetan Anand beat David Snider of Canada 21-18, 21-17 in men's singles category.

OneIndia News