Saina, Kashyap reach Indonesian Open quarters; Srikanth, Jwala-Ashwini crash out

Jakarta: Saina Nehwal breezed past Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching while Parupalli Kashyap stunned World No.5 Son Wan Ho in straight games to make it to the quarterfinals of the Indonesian Open Super Series badminton tournament on Thursday. Saina, who slipped to third place in the world rankings, thrashed Ching 21-13 21-15 in a 36-minute contest to set up a clash with old foe Shixian Wang in the women’s singles quarters. [caption id=“attachment_2267868” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File picture of Saina Nehwal. AP[/caption] Kashyap, meanwhile, upstaged Ho 21-11 21-14 in just 36 minutes and will face top seed Chen Long in the men’s singles quarterfinal. However, Kidambi Srikanth bowed out after going down 21-14 20-22 13-21 to Ginting Anthony of Indonesia in a battle that lasted 54 minutes. CLINICAL SAINA, KASHYAP Saina, seeded second, put up a thoroughly clinical performance against her unseeded rival, clinching the first game in a mere 14 minutes. Ching fought a tad harder in the second game but Saina dominated the proceedings just enough to pocket the match in just over half an hour. World no. 12, Kashyap came up with a dominating display against Wan Ho, winning a total of 42 points as compared to just 25 won by the Korean. The opening game turned out to be a cake walk for Kashyap. Having opened up a 4-0 lead, the shuttler from Hyderabad simply dominated the proceedings. Kashyap continued to surge ahead and the closest the Korean could reach was 4-7 at one stage in the first game. In the second game, Wan Ho bounced back with a 2-0 lead to begin with but Kashyap soon caught up with him at 3-3 and the battle continued till 6-6 before the Indian reeled off six points on the trot to make it 12-6. There was no looking back for Kashyap thereafter and he eventually sealed the game and the match pretty comfortably. Srikanth, ranked third in the world, began with bang. Living up to his reputation, he quickly took the lead and easily wrapped up the opening game in his favour. But Anthony quickly got his act together and the second game was a closely fought affair, where both the players went neck-and-neck till 20-20 before the unseeded Indonesian managed to earn two crucial points to take the match to the decider. In the third game, fourth seed Srikanth initially put up a good fight but halfway into the game, he lost steam and eventually lost it 13-21 to bow out of the tournament. DOUBLES CONTINGENT BOW OUT Meanwhile, it was curtains for the Indians in the doubles events. Star women’s doubles combo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost the second round match to seventh seeded local favourites Yu Yang and Zhong Qianxin 8-21 18-21 in 29 minutes to crash out of the tournament. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar went down to fifth seeded Chinese pair of Chai Biao and Hong Wei 13-21 11-21 in the second round of men’s doubles. PTI