India’s Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the semifinals of the Denmark Open with hard-fought victories over Nozomi Okuhara and Sameer Verma, respectively.

Saina, ranked 10th, recovered after the losing the first game to beat familiar foe and world number seven Okuhura of Japan 17-21, 21-16, 21-12 in the quarterfinal lasting 58 minutes on Friday night.

The final point of the match was a long rally which ended with the Japanese finding the net. It was a morale boosting for the Indian star, having lost her previous three meetings to Okuhara including the most recent one in Korea last month.

Saina had also lost to the 2017 World Champion during the team event at the Asian Games in August.

Overall, their head-to-head record stands at 7-4 in the Indian’s favour. Saina next faces world number 19 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia.