Thailand Open: Saina breezes into quarters

New Delhi: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal notched up a straight-game victory over Chinese Li Han to advance to the quarterfinals of Thailand Grand Prix Gold in Bangkok today. The fifth-ranked Indian rode on her smashes to see off Lan 21-17, 21-13 in a 42-minute women’s singles match at the CU Sport Complex. The 22-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on the winner of the match between Japan’s Kaori Imabeppu and eighth seed Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand. [caption id=“attachment_335772” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“AFP”] [/caption] Top seed Saina took time to get off the mark and was forced to do the catch-up act most of the time during the first game. The Indian levelled the score at 12-12 and waged a grim battle till 17-17, before reeling off four straight points to pocket the first game and lead the match 1-0. In the second game too, Lan put up a fight in the initial moments but Saina was too good for her as she widened the gap from 7-7 to eventually seal the issue comfortably. The other Indian in the women’s singles competition, PV Sindhu, however, lost to former World Champion Wang Lin 12-21, 23-25 in 36 minutes. In the men’s doubles competition, Sanjeeth S and Jagadish Yadav lost 12-21, 6-21 to Calvin Jia Hong Ong and Wee Gleen Tan of Malaysia. Another Indian pair of Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu also bowed out with a 22-24, 13-21 defeat to sixth seeds Ricky Karanda Suwardi and Muhammad Ulinnuha of Indonesia. India’s women’s doubles pair of Pradnya Gadre and Prajakta Sawant also crashed out following a 19-21, 12-21 loss against the Malaysian combo of Amelia Alicia Anscelly and Fie Cho Soong in a 27-minute match. Up against top seeds Xia Huan and Jinhua Tang of China, the Indian pair of Aparna Balan and N Siki Reddy lost 10-21, 13-21 in 24 minutes. PTI