Kuala Lumpur, Jan 14 (IANS) India’s Saina Nehwal lost to World No. 1 Yihan Wang of China in the women’s singles semifinals at the Malaysia Open Superseries badminton event here Saturday.

The loss was Saina’s fifth in a row against Yihan, who has never lost to the Indian and beat her last in the final of the World Superseries finals in December.

Saina, ranked fourth, started well in both the games but eventually could not match the pace of her mighty opponent.

She had a 8-4 lead in the first but Yihan bounced back to take the next six points. From there on, Yihan took control of the game.

Saina was ahead 5-2 in the second game before another recovery from the reigning World Champion, who did not lose the lead from 10-10.

Yihan next faces the winner of an-all Chinese semifinal between Shixian Wang and Xin Wang scheduled later in the evening.