India's ace shuttler Saina Nehwal stormed into the quarterfinals of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with a straight game win over of Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria in Basel.
Nehwal, who is the defending champion and top seed, took exactly half an hour to get the better of Nedelcheva 21-15 21-10 in the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles event late last night.
By virtue of this win, Nehwal, who reclaimed World No 2 position yesterday, took a 6-2 head-to-head lead over 23rd ranked Nedelcheva.
Olympic bronze medalist, Saina Nehwal regained her second place while Parupalli Kashyap gained two places to reach the seventh spot in the latest badminton world ranking today.
Nehwal had lost a position to slip to the third spot last week, but after a semifinal finish at the All England Championship, the Indian regained her place in the world ranking.
Two-time defending champion Saina Nehwal has been seeded No.1 in women's singles at the $125,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold which starts on Tuesday.
Saina, who lost in the semifinal of the All England Open Badminton Championships Saturday, won the tier three tournament in 2011 and 2012.
In 2011, the current World No.3 beat South Korea's Sung Ji-hyun 21-13, 21-14 in the final. Last year she overcame nemesis Shixian Wang 21-19, 21-16 to clinch the only tier three title of March.
Birmingham: Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal's dream of winning her maiden All England Championship went up in smoke as the Indian suffered a straight-game defeat to world number eight Intanon Ratchanok of Thailand in the semifinals of the women's singles competition here today.
The world number three Indian went down 15-21 19-21 to the young and dynamic Intanon in a 40-minute match at the National Indoor Arena. This is the third time Saina has lost to Intanon.
She was beaten at the Sudirman Cup in 2011 and also at the Super Series Final last year.
India's Saina Nehwal beat Shixian Wang in the quarterfinals of the All England Super Series Premier in Birmingham today to advance to the semi-finals of the prestigious tournament. The win didn't come easy and the Indian star, who is the second seed, had to fight every inch of the way to come out triumphant in three tough games 23-21, 19-21, 21-16.
The match, which stretched over an hour, saw Saina's retreival powers stand her in good stead. She kept making the Chinese star play that one extra shot and in the end it weighed on her patience.
India's Saina Nehwal returns to China's Wang Shixian during their All England Open Badminton Championships women's singles quarter-final match in Birmingham, central England, on March 8, 2013.
