Saina Nehwal reaches final of Philippine Open Badminton

New Delhi, May 27 (UNI) Saina Nehwal continued her giantkilling spree as she pulled off yet another victory over Japanese Ai Goto and reach the women's singles final of the Philippine Open Badminton Championship in Manila today.

Sixteen-year-old Saina, ranked 86th in the world, packed off Goto 21-19 20-22 21-14 to become the first Indian woman to reach the final in a four-star event.

The teenager from Hyderabad will play seventh seed Julia Xian Pei Wong of Malaysia in the final tomorrow.

Earlier in the quarter-finals, Saina had dumped top seed and world number four Xu Huaiwen of Germany 12-21, 21-17, 21-17 in the biggest upset of the tournament. She had also scored an upset win over world number 31 Shutheaswari Mudukasan of Malaysia on the opening day of the tournament.

Meanwhile, all the other Indians ended their campaign with Rupseh Kumar-Sanave Thomas duo losing to higher ranked Indonesian pair of Hendra A Gunawan and Joko Riyodi 9-21, 21-12, 11-21 in the doubles quarter-finals.

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