Saina enters French Open quarters

Paris - India’s top seed Saina Nehwal advanced to the women’s singles quarter-finals of the French Open Super Series here on Thursday, easing past Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in straight games.

The Indian won 21-16, 21-13 in 37 minutes in their third career encounter. Saina had won the previous two meetings as well.

The first game was a topsy-turvy one with neither player giving room to the other to take a lead of more than a point till 8-all. Saina then took a small lead but it was neutralised by the unseeded Thai at 13-all.

From there, Saina, the world No.3, took five consecutive points to go 18-13 up and closed the game in the next six points.

The Hyderabadi displayed dominance in the second game with superior skill and speed.

After taking a lead of 10-3, Saina never looked back and won the game comfortably by eight points.

Saina will next face the winner of the match between Indonesia’s Aprilla Yuswandari and Thailand’s seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon.

In the men’s singles, Mumbai‘s Ajay Jayaram went down to veteran third seed Peter Gade of Denmark for a place in the second round. The Indian lost the marathon match 18-21, 21-17, 21-14 in one hour and one minute.

This was Jayaram’s second career loss to Gade in as many matches.