Saina Nehwal wins Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold

Ace Indian, shuttler Saina Nehwal continuing her good performance in Olympics where she reached to the quarterfinals, on Sunday claimed the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold badminton championship in Taiwan.

The 18-year-old Hyderabadi beat her Malaysian opponent Li Ya Lydia Cheah in straight sets 21-8, 21-19 and became the first Indian woman to win a grand prix gold event.

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Apart from winning the 4-star Philippines Open in 2005, Saina emerged as the runners up at the 2006 BWF World Junior Championships.

Prior to Olympics, she had been to the semifinals of the Super Series event in Singapore Open in June this year and then to the quarter finals of the Thailand Open.

Earlier, in Jaunary 2007 Saina had won the Indian National Badminton Championships held at Patna, and then in March same year she bagged the Gold Medals at the 33rd National Games.

However, it was her recent Olympic performance when she beat world No. 5 and 4th seeded Wang Chen of Hong Kong to move to the quarterfinals of 2008 Beijing Olympics but then lost to Indonesian Maria Kristin Yulianti.