Saina reaches finals of Swiss Open

New Delhi: Defending champion Saina Nehwal reached her second consecutive final of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold with a straight-game victory over Japan`s Minatsu Mitani in the semifinals in Basel, Switzerland.

The Indian ace registered a 21-16, 21-18 triumph over Mitani in 35 minutes to set up a summit clash with second seed Shixian Wang. The world number three Chinese beat eighth seed Inthanon Ratchanok of Thailand 21-17, 21-15 in another women`s singles match last night. Saina, who turned 22 yesterday, didn`t allow the Japanese to come close to her as she opened up a 3-0 lead and kept extending it to pocket the first game. In the second game, Mitani showed some aggression and led 7-3, but Saina caught up with her and then moved ahead to seal the match. The world number five Saina had beaten sixth seed Xin Liu of China 21-12, 21-13 in the quarterfinals. PTI