laying in China against a local opponent can trigger a nervous breakdown for someone not used to a hostile crowd. But then Saina Nehwal has proved time and again that pressure spurs her on.

On Friday, the 18-year-old not only battled the situation with grit but also overpowered world champion and third seed Zhu Lin 21-16, 21-23, 21-18 in just under an hour to reach the semifinals of the China Masters Super Series in Changzhou.

The seventh seed, who won the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix gold tournament a fortnight ago, will now take on Hong Kong's Zhou Mi in the last four stage. The sixth seed had earlier upset top seed Lu Lan 10-21, 21-13, 21-14 in the other quarterfinal.

"I was aware that she was fresh. But after initial exchanges, I began catching her deep on her backhand and that gave me the advantage in the first game," Saina told HT over the phone.

"The bigger challenge was to get distracted with the 4,000 odd crowd supporting her and barring one occasion I guess I handled it well," said the Hyderabadi, who is without a travelling coach for this tournament.