Badminton

Saina enters Malaysian Open quarters

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal continued her dream run and reached the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with a gruelling three-game win over Intanon Ratchanok of Thailand on Thursday.

Second seed Saina rallied to outlast Intanon 18-21, 21-12, 21-18 in a 46-minute clash to set up a quarter-final with Chinese qualifier Xin Wang on Saturday. Xin thumped sixth seed Japanese Ai Goto 21-14, 21-14 in the other pre-quarterfinal.

However, it was curtains for Arvind Bhat and Ajay Jayaram in the men’s singles. Ninth seed Arvind was thrashed by Chinese Long Chen 5-21, 11-21 in just 27 minutes, while Ajay went down to Yun Hu of Hong Kong 15-21 14-21 within half an hour. Meanwhile, India’s mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta brushed aside the Malaysian duo of Wee tat Tan and Hui Ern Ng 21-12, 21-12 to move into the quarter-finals where they will meet Indonesian pair of Hendra Aprida Gunawan and Vita Marissa on Friday.

Men’s doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas won their first round match against the sixth seeded Chinese pair of Zhiben Chen and Ye Shen 14-21, 21-15, 21-16 in a 53-minute clash.

They will next face the Malaysian pair of Teik Chai Gan and Bin Shen Tan.

Tags: Saina Nehwal