Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal remained on course for her second title of the season as she reached the semifinals of the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold with a straight-game victory over Sapsiree Taerattanachai in Bangkok today. Top seed Saina played long rallies and used her effective smashes to stave off the challenge from the hosts eighth seed Taerattanachai 21-10, 22-20 in the women's singles competition. The world number five, who is one of the medal prospects for India at the London Olympics, will next take on the winner of the match between Japan's Nozomi Okuhara and third seed Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand tomorrow. Saina had defended her title at the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold in March in Basel, Switzerland early this year. Later in the day, Saurabh Verma, Sameer Verma and Sai Praneeth will play their quarterfinal matches. For semi-final berths, Saurabh will shuttle it out against Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia; Sameer will face Huan Gao of China and Praneeth will slug it out against Chen Yuekun of China for a place in the semi-finals.