Denmark Open: Saina, Gurusaidutt in quarters; Kashyap knocked out

Defending champion Saina Nehwal advanced to the quarterfinals of the Denmark Super Series Premier with a straight-game thrashing of Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in the second round of the women’s singles competition in Odense on Thursday. The London Olympics bronze medallist notched up a 21-12 21-7 victory over Gilmour in only 30 minutes. The World No. 4 Indian will next face the winner of sixth-seed Korean Ji Hyun Sung and Tsz Ka Chan of Hong Kong. [caption id=“attachment_1178699” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Saina Nehwal is the defending champion at the Denmark Open. Reuters[/caption] Earlier, in a clash between two Indians, RMV Gurusaidutt enjoyed the bragging rights when he prevailed 21-15 21-16 over Ajay Jayaram in a men’s singles match which lasted 35 minutes. Gurusaidutt faces a tough quarterfinals where he will next take on third seed Chinese Pengyu Du. In rampaging form during the Indian Badminton League, Saina took some time to get into her groove. This allowed Gilmour to open a slender 6-3 gap against the Indian in the early stages of the first game. However, the Hyderabadi reeled off six straight points to zoom ahead and didn’t lower her guard again as Gilmour was left to do the catching up. In the second game, Saina surged to a 6-0 lead but Gilmour managed to reduce the margin to 9-4. The Indian then extended the gap with four straight points and kept moving ahead, before comfortably sealing the match. India’s top male shuttler Parupalli Kashyap could not get beyond World No. 5 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark and suffered a 11-21 15-21 defeat to the local star in a 35-minute match. In the first game, Kashyap did put up a fight and was lagging 6-7 but Jorgensen didn’t allow the Indian to get level. He steadily moved ahead and then at 15-11, reeled off six points to take the game. In the second, Jorgensen enjoyed a 8-2 lead early on and though the Indian clawed back to 6-8, the Dane never let it threaten him. He kept extending the gap and finally earned a match point on 20-11. Kashyap reeled off four straight points but Jorgensen had the last laugh. PTI